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T H EF; Hep, abtoal seynee 
LIBERAL GOSPEL 


As set forth in the writings of 
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING 





EDITED BY 


CHARLES H.*LYTTLE, TH.D. 


James Freeman Clarke Professor of Church History 
in Meadville Theological School 





BOSTON 
PEBBLE ACONe PRESSING: 
1925 


Copyright, 1925,.By\ ou 
THE BEACON PRESS, Inc. 


All rights reserved 





FOREWORD 


This collection of passages from the writings of 
Channing is intended to perpetuate the memory and 
the influence of the acknowledged leader of the 
Liberal movement in New England Congregationalism 
which resulted in the formation of the American Uni- 
tarian Association in 1825 (the Presidency of which 
ill health compelled Channing to decline). Although 
the observance of the centennial is the immediate oc- 
casion of the publication of this anthology, the latter 
is prepared with no denominational objective in mind, 
but with the hope that by making the message of 
Channing more easily accessible and more handily 
available, pure Christianity and universal religion will 
be promoted; and the hearts of those who are striv- 
ing for a more righteous social order, in which war, 
economic slavery, political baseness, alcoholism, pov- 
erty, and illiteracy will be diminished, may be cheered 
and strengthened. Channing was not simply a prophet 
and preacher of rational Christianity, that is, a creed- 
less, unsectarian and intellectually free and honest 
religion of righteousness and philanthropy; he was 
counsellor and foreteller of the social progress of his 
and the next century; he is an apostle of a world 
religion, a church universal, an internationalism of the 
spirit. 


FOREWORD 


Not all the great passages with which his Works 
are studded could be comprised in this volume; it is 
hoped that the greatest have been, and that a just and 
impressive presentation of Channing’s message has 
been effected. Simplicity has been sought in the 
arrangement; perhaps the Index will be a better path- 
finder than the Table of Contents. <A brief but, it 
is expected, an adequate Bibliography follows the 
Selections. 

It has been a source of gratification to the compiler, 
that for a second time the memory of Channing has 
been entrusted to a minister of the Second Unitarian 
Church of Brooklyn, N. Y. For this reason, as well 
as the fact that his biography “William Ellery Chan- 
ning, Minister of Religion” is indispensable to the 
student of the great Liberal and his times, the name 
of Rev. John White Chadwick should stand first among 
those to whom I am indebted for help and inspiration. 
Those who have rendered me assistance in a technical 
way are Professor Francis A. Christie, Rev. Walter 
C. Green of the Meadville Theological School, and 
Dean W. W. Fenn of the Theological School in Har- 
vard University. Upon Rev. Henry Wilder Foote, 
Secretary of the Centenary Committee of the Ameri- 
can Unitarian Association has fallen most of the labor 
of correction and revision. To Mr. Benjamin F. 
Seaver, Mr. William Augustus White, and Miss 
Isabelle J. Boggs of the Second Church in Brooklyn 
I am obliged for the loan of books and articles. Their 
kindness has been, however, but typical of the generous 
sympathy of that congregation with the literary inter- 


FOREWORD 


ests and labors of its ministers. Another of their 
number is my wife, whose co-operation and advice have 
been of inestimable value. 

CHARLES H. LYTTLE 


Brooklyn, December 17, 1924. 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/liberalgospelassOOchan 


WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING 
An Interpretation 


Channing is one of the great Christians of history. 
There have not been many in the course of the 
centuries who so nearly satisfy our conceptions of 
what a follower of the Nazarene should be and should 
accomplish for the preparation of the Kingdom upon 
earth. There have not been many who have repro- 
duced in lovely symmetry of ideal and deed the 
spiritual intentness and control, the thrilling speech 
and heroic behavior, the natural purity, the instant 
and comprehending charity which we associate with 
Jesus. A few names of conceded eminence occur to 
USmeaccolding: to -ourr predilections; | Origen, ot: 
Benedict, The Little Poor Man of Assisi, 4 Kempis, 
Las Casas, John Robinson, Jeremy Taylor, Fenelon, 
Locke, Wesley and Woolman.. . . criterion names 
illustrative of that singular energy of goodness which 
can exalt and transfigure a frail, local human being 
into a divine ambassador, magnetic with the light and 
power of a sacred duty, seer and prophet of the 
eternal expediencies of righteousness, truth and love, 
to his age and its people. Such was Channing: whose 
heart God emptied of all mean traits and qualities 
to fill it with a self-renouncing ardor, transparent 

i 


il AN INTERPRETATION 


candor, angelic wisdom and overflowing compassion, 
to be a choice vessel of his Spirit and a liberator of 
those who are bound. There is no pontiff to canonize 
the venerable and blessed of Liberalism: but it ts 
sufficient that the Lutheran Bunsen recognized him as 
‘a grand Christian saint and man of God’’; that the 
Anglican Frederick Robertson expected to see 
Channing in the bourne of time “revolving around the 
central Light in an orbit immeasurably nearer than 
ours, and lost in a blaze of glory’; while the Quaker 
Whittier, in ecclesiastical metaphor, bore witness to 
the honor in which the prophet was held even in his 
own country: 


“In vain shall Rome her portals bar 
And shut from him her saintly prize, 
Whom in the world’s great calendar 
All men shall canonize. 


And thus the common tongue and pen 
Which world-wide echo Channing’s fame 
As one of Heaven’s anointed men 

Have sanctified his name.” 


In curious conformity with the conventional belief 
that the relics of every true saint work miracles from 
his altar shrine, the words of Channing, long after 
his death, continue to exert a remarkable influence 
upon religious thought and humanitarian reform. 
“We all preach Channing,” said Phillips Brooks. This 
influence is exerted less by the literary merit of its 
instrument (as the critics from Hazlitt to Woodberry 
have pointed out) than by the indwelling energy of 


AN INTERPRETATION iil 


conviction, the messianic fervor and flame which 
Channing’s noble sentences, mounting from fitting 
phrase to robust period, spreading from simple 
thoughts to grand, inclusive principles, enshrine and 
strive to impart. Nevertheless, for all the pith and 
resonance of his prose, and the treasured recollections 
of his pulpit eloquence, Channing is not to be ap- 
proached primarily as a writer or an orator. His 
lofty style was but the vesture of loftier thought and 
emotion. Back of the eloquence with which he voiced 
his faith, back of the faith itself, was the conscious- 
ness that to him had been revealed the principal truth 
of modern Liberalism. Through every utterance there 
breathes an apostolic certitude of right teaching, a 
frank confidence in the possession of healing and re- 
deeming wisdom. This certitude and confidence Chan- 
ning gained, not through philosophic speculation but 
from an illumination of divine truth which suffused his 
being with a jubilant faith, a positive hope, and laid 
upon him a sacred obligation to dispel the doubts and 
quicken the souls of his fellow men. For, like his 
Master, who, after the baptism, spent forty days of 
self-discipline and dedication in the wilderness, and 
according to the precedent of Paul as well, Channing’s 
faith and devotion had their origin in a transcendent 
experience, and were rooted in his will by a long 
vigil and ordeal of soul, in which doubts were 
answered, weakness conquered, pride and_ flesh 
mastered, and the new man born in fasting, humility 
and prayer. 

The illumination which came to Channing is one 
of the noblest religious experiences in history. It 


Iv AN INTERPRETATION 


occurred to him when a student at Harvard about 
the year 1796. Resting under a clump of willows 
near the river bank in Cambridge, he was reflecting 
upon the derogatory views of human nature then 
dominant in contemporary thought: those inspired by 
the mechanistic determinism of the French skeptics 
and the Calvinist doctrine of the utter depravity, the 
moral inability of man born of woman and unvisited 
by divine grace. A book into which the loftiest spirit 
of Roman Stoicism, combined with the optimism and 
philanthropy of the Age of Reason had been distilled, 
lay open upon his knees, and he was occupied in read- 
ing a passage wherein the author, in refutation of 
the misanthropical theories of human nature which 
have been mentioned, feelingly recalled the historic 
testimony of man’s capacity for disinterested benevo- 
lence, evinced by so many instances of unprofitable 
and self-sacrificing fidelity to the interests of others 
and the welfare of the race. The lad was stirred by 
the pure heroism of his kind; and there came to his 
mind the teaching that he had heard as a boy in 
Newport from the lips of one of the saintliest of 
New England’s divines: that God’s highest attribute 
was disinterested benevolence, which Jesus had 
enjoined his brethren to follow, bidding them be per- 
fect as their Father in heaven is perfect in the exercise 
of impartial beneficence to his human children, the evil 
and the good, just and unjust. Then, in the provi- 
dence of Channing’s great destiny, the light broke upon 
him, the truth appeared in such a torrent of over- 
powering glory that ‘“‘the place and hour were always 
sacred in his memory and he frequently referred to 


AN INTERPRETATION Vv 


them with grateful awe. It seemed to him that he 
there passed through a new spiritual birth and entered 
upon the day of joy and peace. He longed to die, as 
if heaven alone could give room for the exercise of 
such emotions.” ‘The sublime idea of Man’s natural 
moral freedom, his filial inheritance of divine powers, 
his infinite spiritual perfectibility flooded his mind with 
the “fountain light of all his day, the master light of 
all his seeing.” Henceforward the smoky stratagems 
of Calvin for terrifying men into morality, and the 
Lucretian materialism of the foes of the Infamy in 
France were to Channing blasphemy and anathema. 
The momentous conviction, to which the Age of 
Reason had been pointing, for which the Age of 
Science and Democracy were waiting, had been di- 
vulged, with the brightness of a new Sinai, to the earn- 
est heart and the gifted mind of a son of the Puritans. 
It was one of the solemn annunciations of history, a 
signal episode in Man’s long, momentous divination of 
truth. From that day forward Channing was a man 
consecrated and apart, for he was to be a servant of 
the servants of God: 


“Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest 

Cannot confound or doubt Him or deny: 

Yea, with one voice, O world though thou deniest, 
Stand thou on that side for on this am I! 


Rather the earth shall doubt, when her retrieving 
Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod; 
Rather than he, for whom the great conceiving 
Stirs in his soul to quicken into God.” 


Vi AN INTERPRETATION 


It is uncommon that the great teacher, to whom the 
vision has been granted, goes at once, from the 
mountain top to the valley of men’s dwellings and 
the highways of his mission. Channing also was 
moved to consummate the vision by a withdrawal into 
a solitary place, until his conviction was clear and his 
duty thoroughly determined. Accepting the manifest 
vocation to the Christian ministry he sought funds 
for the necessary period of divinity study by teaching 
in Richmond for nearly two years. They were years 
of stern and holy probation. Deliberately absenting 
himself from the fashionable and profligate society 
of that Southern metropolis, to which his social rank 
would have assured him entrance, he secluded himself 
in his schoolhouse study and exhausted his time and 
strength in severe self-searching and meditation; for 
he was disconsolate until he had resolved the duplicity 
between sensual desire and pure ideal, between 
professed faith and intrusive doubt, between worldly 
ambition and the challenge to Christ-like self-oblation 
that seemed to render him recreant to his great vision 
and its calling. His moral discipline was as exacting 
as his intellectual; both were intensified by physical 
asceticism. He lay upon the winter floor as a bed, 
he worked through the night contemptuous of the 
indulgence of sleep, he fasted to subdue the flesh to 
the spirit. At the same time, with scrupulous 
intellectual integrity he tested the truth of his illumi- 
nation by submitting it to the arguments of the 
English skeptics and to the sarcasms of the French 
atheists. The result was, a serene intellectual free- 
dom, athletic and vigilant, comparable in the realm of 


AN INTERPRETATION Vii 


the judgment to that disinterested benevolence of the 
soul which he worshipped in God. This affinity 
between intellectual and moral freedom Channing ever 
insisted upon with the authority of experience: 


“T cannot better give my views of spiritual freedom than 
by saying it is moral energy put forth against the senses, 
against the passions, against the world, and thus liberating the 
conscience and the will, so that they may act with strength 
and unfold themselves forever. "The essence of spiritual 
freedom is power— He only is free who, through self-conflict 
and moral resolution, sustained by trust in God, subdues the 
passions which have debased him, and, escaping the thraldom 
of low objects, binds himself to pure and lofty ones.” 


Wrestling after this fashion with privation and 
economy, doubt and self-reproach, he gained the 
blessing which he sought; purity of heart, unswerving 
self-command, impersonality of judgment, unity of 
power, definiteness of purpose. It was with a grave 
and tender reticence that he referred in after years to 
his sojourn in Richmond: 


“T look back on those days and nights of loneliness and 
frequent gloom with thankfulness. If I ever struggled with 
my whole soul for purity, truth and goodness, it was there. 
‘There, amidst sore trials, the great question, I trust, was 
settled within me: whether I would be the victim of passion 
and the world, or the free child and servant of God. Ina 
licentious, intemperate city, one spirit at least, was preparing, 
in silence and loneliness, to toil for truth and holiness.” 


He returned to his home in Newport transformed 
in spirit and broken in health. The latter was 


Viil AN INTERPRETATION 


permanently enfeebled by the austerities of the past 
two years to such a degree that henceforward the once 
robust and vivacious young man would be exhausted 
by the exertion of preaching a sermon—a nervous 
debility sometimes so profound that the fragrance of 
a flower would cause agony. So intense were the 
fires of the Spirit! But in his moral being and deport- 
ment there was a compensation. A beautiful serenity, 
unfailing patience, elevating seriousness, a gentle and 
melting sympathy testified to the change. His grave 
and tranquil presence elicited an instinctive deference 
which in later years grew into a general and impulsive 
veneration for his habitual preoccupation with the 
noblest themes and projects. At the age of twenty 
three he was called to the pulpit of the Federal Street 
Church in Boston where he pleaded the love and pro- 
claimed the truth of the Eternal during forty 
prodigious years of religious and political evolution. 


When Channing began preaching in Boston, Liberal- 
ism was at an ebb throughout Europe and America. 
The Revolution, here and in France, had been followed 
by a harsh and haughty reaction against democracy 
and its attendant freedom of thought and speech, of 


_.. civic, cultural and economic opportunity for the 


laboring classes. The struggle on the Continent for 
and against the domineering parvenuism of the 
Corsican sustained the policies of reactionary op- 
pression under the last mannikins of Absolutism; 
then the intrigues of Metternich prolonged the 
martyrdom of the spirit of Humanity and intellectual 
progress. De Maistre and Chateaubriand seduced 


AN INTERPRETATION ix 


the minds of many by the false glamor and fictitious 
worth they gave the mother of orthodoxy. Herder 
and Schleiermacher cast the spell of sentimentality 
over German Protestantism, and in England Paley and 
Watson persuaded the standing order that rationalism 
in religion was cousin to revolution in government. 
This reaction had its American counterpart in the 
crusading Calvinism of Jedidiah Morse, Timothy 
Dwight, Samuel Miller, Lyman Beecher and others. 
By them and their party was instigated and directed 
that revivalist excitement which was planned as an 
antidote to Jeffersonian Deism and infidelity so 
prevalent in the States at that time. But the second 
decade of the nineteenth century brought a new vernal 
movement. ‘The stirrings of progress and reform 
were felt first in Europe. Wilberforce and Shaftes- 
bury, Bentham, Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt and Shelley 
are specimens of the genius of mind and heart by 
which England was persuaded to achieve the correction 
of the rotten borough iniquities, the enfranchisement 
of Dissenters and Catholics, and the emancipation 
of the slaves in the West Indies. In France, St. 
Simon, Cabanis, Cousin stemmed the clericalism of 
the waning Bourbons and inaugurated the new 
philosophy of society which culminated in the 
sociology of Comte and the socialism of Fourier. In 
Germany, the nationalism that Fichte had invoked 
to save the German soul turned against the feudal 
and dynastic bigotries of Protestantism not only with 
the weapons of revolution, but with the radical 
criticism of Paulus, Baur and Strauss. Like the 
murmur of distant cheering these signs and voices of 


x AN INTERPRETATION 


the new era came over the ocean to Channing, sensi- 
tive to every oppression, sympathetic with every 
outreaching and uprising of the spirit of man. He 
rightly interpreted them as ,confirming his own vision 
and conviction. Knowing himself in tune with the 
purpose of the Eternal, he also rejoiced to find him- 
self leagued with the finest intelligence and scruples 
of his own day in the advocacy of Man’s moral dignity 
and powers of rational self-guidance, and in the 
promotion of social reform, economic opportunity, 
popular education and a broader and purer Chris- 
tianity. 

Progress in the realization of this manifold freedom 
was nowhere more briskly challenged by the reaction- 
aries of orthodoxy, privilege and obligarchical govern- 
ment than in adolescent America, from whose 
experiment in democracy so much was expected and 
so much was feared. The Federalist Party, with 
whose New England Junto of leaders Channing was 
closely related by family and tradition, united in its 
ranks the conservatives of the North in politics and 
religion; while the slave-holding interests of the South, 
with their confederates in northern banks, commission 
houses, and among the cotton manufacturers of New 
England were vitally concerned with the preservation 
of an aristocratic and sycophantic Church. ‘The de- 
termination of the genius and destiny of the young 
Republic hung upon the issue of the struggles. 

In the religious phase of the conflict, it was a 
question whether New England and her western coloni- 
zations should be abandoned to the mercies of a 
fanatical and other-worldly Calvinism, relentlessly 


AN INTERPRETATION x1 


hostile to that spirit of common sense and self-reliance, 
tolerance and philanthropy which characterized the 
manliest and most vigorous thought of the age. But 
there were larger aspects of the struggle, far out- 
running and yet deeply implicated with the Calvinist 
denial of the fullest moral potentialities to any save 
the elect saints. Should the manhood of the manual 
laborer, whether black or white, residing on Northern 
farms or Southern plantations be degraded by any 
theory or principle of inferiority whether broached 
by Calvinism or by the slave interests? Should his 
rights to a Christian decency and security of family 
life, as well as to full civic freedom, be sacrificed to 
the thesis, proposed by slavery, but with its basis 
in feudal and ecclesiastical Christian doctrine, that 
a large number of human beings are by nature so 
inferior to others that justice is not injured if 
they become the unconditioned property of other men; 
a thesis rendered very lucrative by the prospect of 
huge profits from the cotton gin and the spinning jenny, 
the mines and wheatfields of the opening West? 
Should the Church of Christ in America be so cor- 
rupted by Mammon and his worship in fashion and 
trade as to give its blessing to economic serfdom, 
represented in those days by slavery, with its record 
of unspeakable brutality, its hideous bastardies of 
miscegenation, its political insolence and corruption in 
the Capitol, its arrogant demands for the unhampered 
expansion of the institution, by force of arms if need 
be, into the virgin West and the margins of Mexico? 
In this titanic grapple of contending destinies, Chan- 
ning chose his side; but it was not the position expected 


Xil AN INTERPRETATION 


of him by his friends and kinsmen, nor the majority 
of his congregation, nor was it the attitude most con- 
genial to his reflective and pacific disposition. The 
revelation under the willows in Cambridge of the 
infinite worth of a human being, his invincible persua- 
sion of its practical validity in every sphere and 
situation formed for him a far mightier compulsion 
than the tug of social status or the plea of tempera- 
ment; and carried him by sheer force of moral con- 
viction to the vanguard of Liberalism. 

Its first and necessary undertaking was to defend 
Christianity against the orthodox reaction, which, by 
means of slanderous propaganda, fanatical revival 
campaigns, and plots to dominate learning, had begun 
war not only on the Deistic infidelity which the writings 
of Thomas Paine typified and disseminated, but also 
those rationalizing tendencies working within the . 
Church through the writings of such eminent thinkers 
as Locke, Tillotson, Lardner and Butler, and the bibli- 
cal scholarship of Wettstein and Griesbach. Not 
only the ministerial graduates of Harvard and Yale, 
but the educated laymen of New England were 
acquainted with these liberalizing influences, as well 
as with the social millennialism of Godwin and Condor- 
cet, and were inclined to reason about the Bible and 
Christian doctrine with the same shrewd common sense 
with which they had been accustomed to discuss the 
provisions of the Constitution and the theories of de- 
mocracy. ‘Taught by the abominations of the church 
of the Old Regime in France, as well as by Deistic 
criticism of the Thirty Nine Articles and the Church 
of England, they were prepared to distinguish be- 





AN INTERPRETATION Xill 


tween apostolic Christianity and the corruptions 
introduced by priestcraft and superstition. The aver- 
age man, plying his intelligence upon the metaphysics 
of Calvinism, was moved to suspect its preposterous 
tenets, so destructive of the moral self-respect and 
working fraternalism of the New World, and to recon- 
struct his faith and ethics upon his own reading of the 
New Testament. 

To a public thus predisposed, Channing brought his 
inspiring message of the propriety of such self-reliance, 
and of the thorough competency of the conscience and 
reason of the nineteenth century to find the true con- 
tent and fulfill the precepts of the genuine teaching 
of Jesus Christ. The basic identity of the temper of 
the average American of those pioneer days and of 
Channing’s gospel is apparent. Both were forthright 
and independent of tradition; both were governed by 
an ideal of manly self-respect, self-reliance and practi- 
cal integrity. On the condition that such integrity 
of mind and purpose was the polar star, and an esteem 
for scientific scolarship the quadrant, Channing en- 
couraged the individual to dispense with dogmatic 
catechisms and exegesis and to steer bravely out upon 
the seas of truth, trusting to discover the simple law 
that Jesus taught; while at the same time he anticipated 
that, by thus offering Christianity to free and honest 
criticism, the confidence of thinking men in the church 
might be restored and a manly apologetic, a tenable 
loyalty, and an irenic unity might be created on be- 
half of a Christianity reformed for the second time 
and now completely, in the New World. 

Such anticipations necessitate a grand faith in the 


XIV AN INTERPRETATION 


conscience and intelligence of the average man. ‘They 
imply and stress the freedom and responsibility of the 
individual; they are in tune with the triumphant 
march of scientific invention and modern democracy. 
They blossom into prospects and programs of human 
brotherhood and undermine the partitions of creed 
and nationality, color and race that have so long 
seamed the world and disfigured religion. It was 
inevitable that the American Liberalism of which Chan- 
ning was so prominent a leader and interpreter, should 
have become the chief religious expression of the 
spirit of democracy, science and humanitarianism 
which the Age of Enlightenment fostered and devel- 
oped, shielded from the assaults of the obscurantists 
and enthroned amid revolutions. With this spirit 
the fortunes of Liberalism were linked from the begin- 
ing. With the epic romance of our national origins, 
therefore, is to be associated the spiritual romance of 
the first organized religious movement avowedly 
loyal to Humanity in the fullest sense of that glorious 
word: loyalty to Man’s sense or right, to his power 
of mind, to his one common nature and destiny, with- 
out faith in which it is plain that Jesus’ dream of the 
kingdom on earth can never be realized. 

As the interpreter of Americanism in terms of relig- 
ion, Channing had every qualification, and his thought 
and achievement find a place in the first chapter of 
our cultural and philanthropic history as well. By his 
very lineage and environment he stood with the group 
of our elder patriots; his grandfather, William Ellery, 
signed the Declaration of Independence; George 
Washington was entertained at dinner in his father’s 


AN INTERPRETATION XV 


house at Newport; his church in Boston had been the 
scene of the ratification of the Constitution by Massa- 
chusetts in 1787; he had known Chief Justice Marshall 
in Richmond, and in his circle of acquaintances were 
to be found Josiah Quincy, Webster and Charles Sum- 
ner. By blood and friendship he was closely connected 
with many of the early governors, chief justices and 
members of Congress from the Bay State. Thus 
deeply attached by circumstances to the finest tradi- 
tions of American citizenship, it was proper and natural 
that he should take the lead not only in the translation 
of Americanism into religion, but into literature and 
philanthropy also. In each province he presided over 
the opening of the new era. In each field his writ- 
ings were as overtures, predicting the full choir and 
hinting its themes. It was no mere coincidence there- 
fore that the birth of our native American literature 
synchronized with his prophecy that it would come as 
the logical sequel to the religious Reformation inspired 
by the Liberal views: ‘“‘We want a Reformation, we 
want a literature; and our chief hopes for an improved 
literature rest on our hopes of an improved religion— 
a new action and development of the religious principle 
in this country.”’ For it was a young Liberal—William 
Cullen Bryant—who composed America’s first poem 
of considerable merit—‘“The Ages’’; and he delivered 
it in 1821 before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harv- 
ard, of which Channing was a member, but a few 
months before these prophetic lines were written. 
The first literary criticism produced on this side of the 
Atlantic worthy to rank with the Essays of Hazlitt and 
Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review, were Channing’s 





Xv1 AN INTERPRETATION 


own reviews of works on John Milton, Napoleon Bona- 
parte and Fénélon, which appeared in the pages of the 
Christian Examiner, the Liberal organ of the day. 
With but few exceptions all the great literary work 
of American authorship in the first half century of 
our history was produced by that school of poets, his- 
torians and novelists whose ideals had been shaped 
by the spacious humanity, the intellectual rectitude, the 
passion for social justice of William Ellery Channing. 
‘He is our bishop,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
Channing’s transcendent conviction of the moral 
dignity of human nature constrained him to play an 
active, and by virtue of his gifts, a prominent part in 
the various movements for the improvement of the 
conditions of the poor, the elevation of the laboring 
class, and the extension of Christian brotherhood into 
international relations, the organized and energetic 
promotion of which belongs to his day. Such is the 
exceeding wisdom of a great moral principle that 
Channing’s denunciation of war, alcoholism, slums, the 
fatalism of poverty, the exploitation of the manual 
worker, went far beyond the consensus of his own age, 
and in many respects he is still far in advance of our 
own. The Massachusetts Peace Society, organized 
in his study, was the first of its kind in this country. 
In comprehensive indictments of war he exposed the 
hideous inconsistency of militarism (however plausibly 
condoned) with Christianity; and virtually outlined the 
evolution of the peace movement of the following cen- 
tury toward a league of nations and, on the part of the 
individual, non-participation in war from humanitarian 
motives. In these indictments he exposed the un- 


AN INTERPRETATION XVil 


reason of the idolatry paid the profession of arms 
and military courage; he revealed the fallacy of the 
popular conceptions of what constituted national 
honor. The fratricidal orthodoxies of nationalism 
gained no more sympathy from him than did those of 
religion. Intemperance he denounced without com- 
promise, but with understanding of the complexity of 
the problem; and it is significant that he perceived no 
inconsistency between the fullest moral responsibility 
of the individual and the recommendation that the 
manufacture and sale of ardent spirits be forbidden 
by law. Poverty, with its sad by-products of wretched 
housing, domestic sordidness and moral decay he re- 
garded as remediable by the gradual operation of 
enlightened philanthropy and popular education; yet, 
as the years passed, he grew increasingly indignant 
over the apathy, hypocrisy and cynicism of the rich 
and privileged, and had premonitions of a social rev- 
olution, pacific in its methods, but drastic in its re- 
forms. He visualized the settlement house fifty years 
in advance of its advent; the reformatory and proba- 
tion system for juvenile offenders; remunerative and 
instructive labor for those in prison; and university 
extension lectures for the laboring classes were among 
his proposals for the ennoblement of the individual and 
society. The grandest perspectives of human bet- 
terment radiated from the heart filled with faith, hope 
and charity for Man. 

It was, however, in relation to negro slavery that 
Channing applied his sublime message of the dignity 
of human nature with the most thorough logic, the 
most moving eloquence, the most impressive effect. 


XVIII AN INTERPRETATION 


The entire nation was his congregation. Humanity 
was the text of a sermon sustained with mounting fer- 
vor and impact for thirteen years. In the year 1831, 
when William Lloyd Garrison was setting up the 
first number of the Liberator with type borrowed 
from the Christian Examiner, the organ of Channing 
and his friends, a lively perception of the evils of 
slavery came to Channing himself while spending the 
winter in the West Indies. ‘his personal contact 
revived the antipathy he had felt for the great iniquity 
since his youthful stay in Richmond; and returning to 
his Boston pulpit he forthwith declared his intention 
to work for the abolition of negro slavery with the 
words “I have been silent too long!” Thenceforward 
the enfranchisement of the slaves by methods of moral 
persuasion and the remuneration of the slave-owners 
was a frequent and passionate theme of his utterances; 
and nowhere are the beliefs of Channing more lucidly 
defined, more astutely argued than in the numerous 
sermons and pamphlets he produced in the cause of 
Emancipation. “Half battles for the free,’ Long- 
fellow called his mighty strokes, which one by one 
described as upon the vault of heaven the verdict of 
the enlightened Christian conscience on the shame of 
negro bondage. A human being cannot rightfully be 
held as property, whatever the law may say; slavery is 
never morally justifiable, however lenient the yoke 
and elegant the superstructure; the extension of slavery 
into the virgin territories of the West must not be toler- 
ated; freedom to oppose the curse of slavery in-speech 
and print must be claimed and defended; neither the 
selfishness of property and business interests, nor the 


AN INTERPRETATION XIX 


indifference of the fashionable and well-to-do can be 
pardoned when the immortal souls of millions of 
black men and women are terrorized and calloused 
and deformed by the heartless practises of their 
owners. Upon these impregnable positions, Channing 
based all his arguments. Yet it was not only the logic 
of his principles, but the chivalry of his sympathy for | 
the slaves and the persecuted Abolitionists that dic- 
tated almost all his utterances on this subject. His 
book on “Slavery” (1835) was evoked by the Boston 
riots of the preceding year, when Garrison was dragged 
about the Common with a noose and assaults upon the 
Abolitionists took place in several cities. In 1836 
an Abolitionist editor of Cincinnati was mobbed and 
driven from the city; Dr. Channing forthwith startled 
the complacence of his fellow citizens with a letter 
rebuking such denial of liberty of speech. In the 
following year a somewhat similar episode of mob 
fury (wreaked upon the Abolitionist Lovejoy at 
Alton, Illinois) stirred him to gather in protest, and 
against the desire of the authorities, a great meeting 
of the citizens of Boston in Faneuil Hall. In the same 
year the proposed annexation of Texas elicited the 
Letter to Henry Clay, trenchant in its attack upon the 
aggressions and perfidies of the pro-Slavery party and 
upon their imperialistic designs. “The pamphlet had 
the effect of staying the attack upon Mexico for a dec- 
ade. Following this, Dr. Channing set himself to 
defeat the conspiracy of silence in which American 
newspapers had buried the auspicious workings of 
Emancipation of the negroes in the British West 
Indies, and published under the aegis of his high repu- 


xx AN INTERPRETATION 


tation the striking facts which demonstrated how nobly 
the human nature even of black people responded to 
the opportunities of freedom. As the conflict grew 
more bitter, and the political issues more involved, the 
ardor of his heart and the acumen of his understanding 
kept pace with the need; against the specious casuistry 
of our State Department, put forth to secure the ex- 
tradition of a mutinous human cargo of a slaveship, 
the Creole, from England, he directed a pamphlet 
filled with the irony of outraged pity and the masterly 
reasoning of a mind enlarged by the divine righteous- 
ness. His last energies were spent upon an address 
celebrating the Emancipation of the West Indian ne- 
groes; his last prayer in public was for the slave’s 
liberation from his bonds. 

That these exertions for the negro cost Channing 
much popularity there is no doubt. His outspoken 
advocacy of Emancipation even at the risk of dividing 
the Union estranged him from many of his conserva- 
tive parishioners and admirers, who deserted his church 
and passed him without a greeting on the street. 
Even the use of his own Meeting House was denied 
him when he desired to hold a public memorial service 
for an Abolitionist, who was also a Unitarian minister 
and his dear friend. He was accused of political 
meddling and ambition and the charge of hypocrisy 
was made against him because a portion of his wife’s 
wealth (which Channing himself scrupulously refused 
to share) was supposed to be derived from slave labor 
in Newport. Whittier’s testimony that ‘Channing 
threw upon the altar (of Emancipation) the proudest 
reputation in letters and theology of his day. With 


AN INTERPRETATION Xxl 


one exception I know of no one who made a greater 
sacrifice’—errs only in the possible suggestion that 
Channing deemed it a sacrifice. He felt, on the 
contrary that in this work his ministry had come full 
circle; and that his gospel of the infinite worth of a 
human soul constrained him to do battle with its most 
sinister denial. The effect of this alignment of his 
wisdom, his eloquence, his unimpeachable integrity of 
heart and mind with the Anti-Slavery movement was 
incalculable; a timely and fortunate counterpoise to 
the influence of those clergymen, even of Episcopal 
rank, who made it their concern to provide the abomi- 
nation of slavery with a doctrinal and Biblical defence. 
The verdict of the jury which Time empanels may 
well be voiced through the words of William Lloyd 
Garrison: ‘Channing is to be ranked among the 
foremost teachers, exemplars and benefactors of 
mankind.” 


To every moral challenge of his age, just as to 
that of Emancipation, Channing responded with an 
enthusiasm which may be expressed and described 
by his own phrase, elicited by the news of European 
uprisings in 1830: ‘Always young for liberty.”’ 
It had been so from the commencement of his matur- 
ity. ‘‘The tyrant is fallen, the world is free,” he cried, 
at the conclusion of an address upon the fall of Bona- 
parte which he made to a great mass meeting of his 
fellow-citizens in King’s Chapel. Change the scene 
to the sphere of religion and mark his strenuous op- 
position to the efforts of the orthodox Calvinists to 
establish ecclesiastical courts in Massachusetts, as they 


XXII AN INTERPRETATION 


had done in Connecticut. ‘‘The time required,” he 
wrote in later years, of his memorable marshalling of 
the Liberal forces, “that a voice of strength and 
courage be lifted up. At such a time I dared not be 
silent.” When the Medusa of intolerance moved 
again in 1830 to petrify progress, he exposed and 
overwhelmed it with unabated zeal in the great ser- 
mon on Spiritual Freedom. Quite as consistent and 
steadfast was his stand in 1837 when the infidel 
lecturer, Abner Kneeland, was brought to trial for blas- 
phemous remarks upon the nativity of Jesus. Chan- 
ning saw that the danger lay, not in the blasphemous 
remarks, but in the suppression of free thought and 
speech, and the prosecution of religious heresy by the 
State. He put his name, therefore, at the head of the 
petition against the trial of Kneeland, although the lat- 
ter’s views were known to be thoroughly repugnant to 
him. To conservatives this seemed to be carrying 
the abstract theory of freedom to dangerous and, 
indeed, gratuitous extremes; but George William Curtis 
thought otherwise, and his estimate is that of the 
majority today: “I know nothing finer in his life .. . 
than to place all his power, all the fineness of his 
genius, all his standing in society as a flame of fire to 
envelope and guard the independence of Abner 
Kneeland.” 

It was this passion for liberty which, operating in 
the sphere of religion, lifted Channing to his supreme 
conception of a universal Church. For when the 
battle for freedom and light, humanity and progress 
had issued in a strong position for the Liberals, he 
bade them straightway exchange the slogans and insig- 


AN INTERPRETATION XXIll 


nia of the first skirmish for new standards and a 
grander goal—no less indeed than the cause and the 
comradeship of the Church Universal. Even a Lib- 
eral Christianity was not broad enough for his desire 
for fellowship with all earnest spirits, who were striv- 
ing, in whatsoever confession, to do justly, to love 
mercy and to walk humbly with God. _Instinctively 
attracted by the great company of the good and true 
in every age, he could give a hand, at one extreme to 
Shelley, none the less a “‘seraph” though “gone 
astray’; and at the other to Cheverus, the first Roman 
Catholic Bishop of Boston. While his colleagues were 
ostracizing Theodore Parker, it was with Channing— 
‘Give my love to Mr. Parker—let the full heart pour 
itself forth.”’ Such catholicity was the natural issue 
and consummation of his passion for liberty and his 
devotion to Humanity. With grand and comprehen- 
sive strokes of fraternal love he sketched in his last 
great sermon the spacious dimensions of the ultimate 
Church of Humanity; and in glowing phrases avowed 
his allegiance to its glorious hope: 


“T belong to the Universal Church; nothing shall separate 
me from it. ... The soul breaks scornfully these barriers, 
these webs of spiders, and joins itself to the great and the good; 
and if it possess their spirit, will the great and good cast it off 
because it has not enrolled itself in this or another sect? 
Virtue is no local thing. . . . It is not honorable but for its 
own independent and everlasting Beauty. ‘This is the bond of 
the Universal Church. No man can be excommunicated from 
it but by the death of goodness in his own breast.” 


With this transfiguration of the local, dated and 


XXIV AN INTERPRETATION 


registered self into the soul and destiny of Mankind, 
Channing’s life in mounting aspiration blended with 
the Eternal Love, whose service had been his life-long 
strength and joy. “I have received many messages 
from the Spirit,’ he murmured as he lay dying. For 
forty years, with anxious fidelity, he had given these 
messages forth to his countrymen, messages winged 
by his rich eloquence, authenticated by his spotless life. 
By virtue of his sublime idea of the human soul, its 
rights and its powers, he had definitely impressed the 
religious, literary and political future of this nation. 
In an age when science and scholarship stagnated 
under the spell of an obscurantist orthodoxy, he de- 
fended the prerogatives of the human mind and aided 
its liberation. ‘Throughout our country today scores 
of non-sectarian seats of learning attest the importance 
of his work. In a period when charity was frozen 
by grim doctrines of God’s wrath toward men, he 
reasserted the pity and faith of Jesus for the lowliest 
mortal and opened the munificent record of America’s 
philanthropy. When racial arrogance and property 
interests, indeed even the subservience of Christian 
ministers, withheld from the negro the moral and legal 
opportunity which every principle of Christianity af- 
firmed to be his, Channing sounded the keynote, not 
only of the slave’s enfranchisement, but of our present 
struggle for economic democracy. ‘This position, like 
his phillipics against militarism, his denunciation of 
war, his plea for international morality and a coven- 
anted peace, owe their continuing freshness and force 
to the eternal veracity of that vision which came to him 
under the willows of Cambridge, in the morning 


AN INTERPRETATION XXV 


his own life and of the Age of Humanity whose 
prophet he was. 


“From off the starry mountain peaks of song 
Thy spirit shows me in the coming time 
An earth untrodden by the feet of wrong, 
A race revering its own soul sublime.” 





1780. 
1792. 


1794. 
1798. 
1798. 
1800, 
1802. 
1803. 


1812. 
1814. 


1814. 
1815. 


1816. 
1819. 
1820. 
1822. 


1824. 


1825. 


IMPORTANT DATES IN CHANNING’S LIFE 


April 7, born in Newport, R. I. 

To New London, Conn., to study with his uncle, Henry Chan- 
ning. 

Enters Harvard College. 

Graduates from Harvard. 

Goes to Richmond, Va., as tutor. 

Returns to Newport. 

Studies theology in Cambridge, Mass. 

June 1, ordained and installed Minister of the Federal Street 
Society in Boston. 

Anti-War Sermon. . 

Sermon at King’s Chapel mass meeting to celebrate the fall of 
Napoleon. 

Marriage to Miss Ruth Gibbs of Newport. 

Channing replies to the attack of the orthodox in ‘The Panop- 
list” upon the Sincerity of the ‘liberal’ Christians. 

Sermon on War before Congregational ministers of Massa- 
chusetts. ? 

Sermon on “Unitarian Christianity” preached at the ordination 
and installation of Jared Sparks as Minister of the (now) 
First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Md. 

Founds the Berry Street Conference of Liberal Ministers, 

To Europe. 

Sermon, “The Demands of the Age on the Ministry,” preached 
at the ordination of Ezra Stiles Gannett as his colleague. 
American Unitarian Association organized, Channing being 

elected first President. 


1825-30. Reviews of Milton, Fénélon and Napoleon for the Christian 


1826. 


1828. 


Examiner. 
Sermon, “Unitarian Christianity favorable to Piety,” at dedi- 
cation of Second Unitarian Church, New York. 
Sermon, “Likeness to God,” at ordination of Frederick A. Far- 
ley in Providence. 
XxVli 


1830. 
1830. 


1830. 
1835. 


1835. 
1836. 


7837. 
1838. 
1838. 
1839. 


1840. 
1841. 


1841, 
1842. 
1842. 
1842. 


1842. 


Sermon, “Spiritual Freedom,” before the Governor and Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts. 

“Discourses, Reviews, and Miscellanies,” with significant in- 
troduction published. 

To the West Indies. 

Pamphlet on “Slavery”? published. 

Third Sermon against War. 

Letter, “The Abolitionists,’ on freedom of speech and publi- 
cation. 

Letter to Henry Clay on the “Annexation of Texas.” 

Lecture on “War.” 

Lecture on “Self Culture.” 

Letter to Jonathan Phillips entitled “Remarks on the Slavery 
Question,” criticising Henry Clay. 

Lectures on “The Elevation of the Laboring Classes.” 

Sermon on “The Church” delivered at the First Unitarian 
Church, Philadelphia. 

Works (5 volumes) published. 

Last Sermon at Federal Street Church. 

“The Duty of the Free States.” 

Address in celebration of West Indian emancipation of the 
negroes delivered at Lenox, Mass. 

October 2, Channing dies at Bennington, Vt. 


xxviii 


CONTENTS 


PAGH 


FOREWORD 
AN INTERPRETATION . ... faite sata Sey Soi i 
THe Morat DIGNITY oF Sha ue NATURE WS 7 un ne I 
VE NES A DONSHIP. STOtCrOD Ue ales tiers DL Acone all Seat ae TL 
Serre RELIGIOUS) LIREU. (60). , : 21 
THE CHARACTER AND WoRK OF cs AND THE 
EXPOSTLES] 1. ale CR aa aerate ey AG 
THE TRAITS OF Nore Grier Pe Ne Ree 
LHe Ricut Conpucr or Lirr . . . : . 66 
THe Uses or Prayer; PRAYERS, AND Mi eoreriane Laks: 
UREMeIEERALSVIINISTRYVO Sits) Sort Se eens: ein eu Od 
PEOUARTAND RELIGIOUS HDUCATION +) ti tia.) OL 
erie PREnS AND UNIVERSAL,.CHURCH ~ 7.16 tao.) .0) 06 
PUN MCIPATIONS OF THE FUTURE LIFED. (4... 4, 44. Waeloo 
INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE AND INTEGRITY . . . I16 
THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM . ... Eph ag Ba ba 
THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN IN iyverarent: AND Prac- 
ICE WNY oo) sch. yan AD PS aaa Sead Mega en eA 
MoTIvEs AND Mcecnies OF sae Recon OE le eae On a TS 1 
Berra ALT Ha OF WEROCRESS cue eke dl ey eee ei set 
Se VEORAL ST ICAW IN GLOLITICS Oy rauis cele eee eek Oo 
Seva ERISTIAN TL PATRION Geni, of piel oa ekten) fe tek LO2 
Ser VIISSION OFA MERICA 5 Poa peeled cs teh) she 4 LOGO 
Drie CTOOD Mt CITIZEN) 6 uae Ww teense fo tase k fa. He 207 
PYGAINSTYVVAR) AND JVLILITARISM ] + Ur cae lets tb 2L0 
YC AINSTOOLN TEMPERANCE Gut nie line Chav “cule 4 230 
PE eINOGRA TH Yiunven eay, are Cteans oes Male MC ya LEO Lora) 248 
KES a ote hic ee Pte er he eas Wey 8240 





THE MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN 
NATURE 


1. The Testimony of Man’s Divine Origin 


I cannot but pity the man who recognizes nothing 
godlike in his own nature. I see the marks of God 
in the heavens and the earth, but how much more in 
a liberal intellect, in magnanimity, in unconquerable 
rectitude, in a philanthropy which forgives every 
wrong, and which never despairs of the cause of 
Christ and human virtue! I do and I must reverence 
human nature. Neither the sneers of a wordly scepti- 
cism nor the groans of a gloomy theology disturb my 
faith in its godlike powers and tendencies. I know 
how it is despised, how it has been oppressed, how civil 
and religious establishments have for ages conspired 
to crush it. I know its history. I shut my eyes on 
none of its weaknesses and crimes. I understand the 
proofs ‘by which despotism demonstrates that man is 
a wild beast, in want of a master, and only safe in 
chains. But injured, trampled on, and scorned as our 
nature is, I still turn to it with intense sympathy and 
strong hope. ‘The signatures of its origin and its end 
are impressed too deeply to be ever wholly effaced. 
I bless it for its kind affections, for its strong and 
tender love. I honor it for its struggles against op- 
pression, for its growth and progress under the weight 
of so many chains and prejudices, for its achievements 


in science and art, and still more for its examples of 
I 


2 MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 


heroic and saintly virtue. These are marks of a 
divine origin and the pledges of a celestial inheritance; 
and I thank God that my own lot is bound up with that 
of the human race. 


Likeness to God, p. 298. 


2. The Ray of Divinity in Man 


Am I asked for my conception of the dignity of a 
human being? I should say, that it consists; first, in 
that spiritual principle, called sometimes the reason, 
sometimes the conscience, which, rising above what is 
local and temporary, discerns immutable truth and 
everlasting right; which, in the midst of imperfect 
things, conceives of perfection; which is universal and 
impartial, standing in direct opposition to the partial, 
selfish principles of human nature; which says to me 
with authority, that my neighbor is as precious as my- 
self, and his rights as sacred as my own; which com- 
mands me to receive all truth, however it may war with 
my pride, and to do all justice, however it may conflict 
with my interest; and which calls me to rejoice with 
love in all that is beautiful, good, holy, happy, in what- 
ever being these attributes may be found. This 
principle is a ray of Divinity in man. 


Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 48. 
3. The Evidence of the Godlike in 


Human Nature 


I have talked of the godlike capacities of human 
nature, and have spoken of man as a divinity; and 
where, it will be asked, are the warrants of this high 
estimate of our race? I may be told that I dream, and 


MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 3 


that I have peopled the world with the creatures of 
my lonely imagination. What! Is it only in dreams 
that beauty and loveliness have beamed on me from 
the human countenance, that I have heard tones of 
kindness which have thrilled through my heart, that 
I have found sympathy in suffering, and a sacred joy 
in friendship? Are all the great and good men of 
past ages only dreams? Are such names as Moses, 
Socrates, Paul, Alfred, Milton, only the fictions of my 
disturbed slumbers? Are the great deeds of history, 
the discoveries of philosophy, the creations of genius, 
only visions? Oh, no. I do not dream when I speak 
of the divine capacities of human nature. It is a real 
page in which I read of patriots and martyrs, of 
Fénélon and Howard, of Hampden and Washington. 
And tell me not that these were prodigies, miracles, 
immeasurably separated from their race; for the very 
reverence which has treasured up and hallowed their 
memories, the very sentiments of admiration and love 
with which their names are now heard, show that the 
principles of their greatness are diffused through all 
your breasts. The germs of sublime virtue are scat- 
tered liberally on earth. How often have I seen 
in the obscurity of domestic life a strength of love, of 
endurance, of pious trust, of virtuous resolution, which 
in a public sphere would have attracted public homage! 
I cannot but pity the man who recognizes nothing god- 
like in his own nature. 


Likeness to God, p. 298. 


4. The Grand Idea of Humanity, of the 
Importance of Man as Man 


We are looking as never before through the dis- 


4 MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 


guises, envelopments of ranks and classes to the com- 
mon nature which lies below them, and are beginning 
to learn that every being who partakes of it has noble 
powers to cultivate, solemn duties to perform, inal- 
ienable rights to assert, a vast destiny to accomplish. 
The grand idea of humanity, of the importance of man 
as man, is spreading silently but surely. Not that the 
worth of the human being is at all understood as it 
should be; but the truth is glimmering through the 
darkness. A faint consciousness of it has seized on 
the public mind. Even the most abject portions of 
society are visited by some dreams of a better condition 
for which they were designed. ‘The grand doctrine, 
that every human being should have the means of self- 
culture,—of progress in knowledge and virtue, of 
health, comfort, and happiness, of exercising the 
powers and affections of a man,—this 1s slowly taking 
its place as the highest social truth. That the world 
was made for all, and not for a few; that society is 
to care for all; that no human being shall perish but 
through his own fault; that the great end of govern- 
ment is to spread a shield over the rights of all,— 
these propositions are growing into axioms, and the 
spirit of them is coming forth in all the departments 
of life. 
The Present Age, p. 160. 


5. The Truly Great are to be Found 


Everywhere 


A man is great as a man, be he where or what he 
may. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignifi- 
cance all outward distinctions. His powers of in- 


MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 5 


tellect, of conscience, of love, of knowing God, of per- 
ceiving the beautiful, of acting on his own mind, on 
outward nature, and on his fellow-creatures,—these 
are glorious prerogatives. Through the vulgar error 
of undervaluing what is common, we are apt indeed to 
pass these by as of little worth. ‘The truly great are 
to be found everywhere, nor is it easy to say in what 
condition they spring up most plentifully. Real great- 
ness has nothing to do with a man’s sphere. It does 
not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the 
extent of the effects which he produces. ‘The greatest 
men may do comparatively little abroad. Perhaps the 
greatest in our city at this moment are buried in 
obscurity. Grandeur of character lies wholly in force 
of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, 
and love, and this may be found in the humblest con- 
dition of life. A man brought up to an obscure trade, 
and hemmed in by the wants of a growing family, may, 
in his narrow sphere, perceive more clearly, discrimi- 
nate more keenly, weigh evidence more wisely, seize on 
the right means more decisively, and have more 
presence of mind in difficulty, than another who has ac- 
cumulated vast stores of knowledge by laborious study; 
and he has more of intellectual greatness. Many a 
man, who has gone but a few miles from home, under- 
stands human nature better, detects motives and weighs 
character more sagaciously, than another who has 
travelled over the known world, and made a name by 
his reports of different countries. It is force of 
thought which measures intellectual, and so it is force 
of principle which measures moral greatness, that 
highest of human endowments, that brightest mant- 


6 MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 


festation of the Divinity. The greatest man is he who 
chooses the right with invincible resolution, who re- 
sists the sorest temptations from within and without, 
who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully, who is calm- 
est in storms, and most fearless under menace and 
frowns, whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, 
is most unfaltering. 


Self Culture, p. 12, 13. 


6. The Only Social Distinctions Should Be Those 
Based on Moral and Intellectual Excellence 


Men may work in different departments of life, and 
yet recognize their brotherly relation, and honor one 
another, and hold friendly communion with one an- 
other. Undoubtedly, men will prefer as friends and 
common associates those with whom they sympathize 
most. But this is not to form a rank or caste. For 
example, the intelligent seek out the intelligent; the 
pious, those who reverence God. But suppose the in- 
tellectual and the religious to cut themselves off by 
some broad, visible distinction from the rest of society, 
to form a clan of their own, to refuse admission into 
their houses to people of inferior knowledge and 
virtue, and to diminish as far as possible the occasions 
of intercourse with them; would not society rise up, as 
one man, against this arrogant exclusiveness? And if 
intelligence and piety may not be the foundations of a 
caste, on what ground shall they, who have no dis- 
tinction but wealth, superior costume, richer equipages, 
finer houses, draw lines around themselves and con- 
stitute themselves a higher class? ‘That some should 


MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 7 


be richer than others is natural, and is necessary, and 
could only be prevented by gross violations of right. 
Leave men to the free use of their powers, and some 
will accumulate more than their neighbors. But to 
be prosperous is not to be superior, and should form 
no barrier between men. Wealth ought not to secure 
to the prosperous the slightest consideration. The 
only distinctions which should be recognized are those 
of the soul, of strong principle, of incorruptible in- 
tegrity, of usefulness, of cultivated intellect, of fidelity 
in seeking for truth. A man, in proportion as he has 
these claims, should be honored and welcomed every- 
where. I see not why such a man, however coarsely 
if neatly dressed, should not be a respected guest in the 
most splendid mansions, and at the most brilliant meet- 
ings. A man is worth infinitely more than the saloons, 
and the costumes, and the show of the universe. He 
was made to tread all these beneath his feet. What 
an insult to humanity is the present deference to dress 
and upholstery, as if silk-worms, and looms, and 
scissors, and needles could produce something nobler 
than a man! Every good man should protest against 
a caste founded on outward prosperity, because it 
exalts the outward above the inward, the material 
above the spiritual; because it springs from and cher- 
ishes a contemptible pride in superficial and transitory 
distinctions; because it alienates man from his brother, 
breaks the tie of common humanity, and breeds 
jealousy, scorn, and mutual ill-will, Can this be 
needed to social order? 


The Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 54. 


8 MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 


7. To Despair of our Race, even when the Times 
are Restless, is Unchristian 


There are, however, not a few who have painful 
fears of evil from the restless, earnest action which 
we have seen spreading itself more and more through 
all departments of society. They call the age wild, 
lawless, presumptuous, without reverence. All men, 
they tell us, are bursting their spheres, quitting their 
ranks, aspiring selfishly after gain and pre-eminence. 
The blind multitude are forsaking their natural leaders. 
The poor, who are the majority, are contriving against 
the rich. Still more, a dangerous fanaticism threatens 
destruction to the world under the name of reform; 
society totters; prosperity is shaken; and the universal 
freedom of thought and action, of which so many 
boast, is the precursor of social storms which only 
despotism can calm. Such are the alarms of not a 
few; and it is right that fear should utter its prophe- 
cies, as well as hope. But it is the true office of fear 
to give a wise direction to human effort, not to chill 
or destroy it. To despair of the race, even in the 
worst times, is unmanly, unchristian. How much 
more so in times like the present! What I most la- 
ment in these apprehensions is the utter distrust of 
human nature which they discover. Its highest pow- 
ers are thought to be given only to be restrained. 
They are thought to be safe only when in fetters. ‘To 
me, there is an approach to impiety in thinking so 
meanly of God’s greatest work. Human nature is 
not a tiger which needs a constant chain. In this case 
it is the chain which makes the tiger. It isthe 


MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 9 


oppressor who has made man fit only for a yoke. 


ThesPresent Age pato7. 


8. The Long Record of Humanity’s Heroes 
and Saints 


Blessed be God; in the history of every age and 
nation—amidst the ravages of ambition and the mean 
aims of selfishness—there have broken forth nobler 
sentiments, and the evidences of a heavenly virtue. 
Every age has been illustrated by men who bore them- 
selves like men, and vindicated the cause of human 
nature,—men who, in circumstances of great trial, 
have adhered to moral and religious principle, to the 
cause of persecuted truth, to the interests of humanity; 
to the hope of immortality,—who have trodden under 
foot the fairest gifts of fortune and the world in the 
pursuit of duty. It has often pleased God to gather 
round these men the clouds of adversity, that their 
virtues might shine with a sublimer splendor. ‘This 
is the greatest value of history, that it introduces us 
to persons of this illustrious order; and its noblest use 
is by their examples to nourish in us a conviction, that 
elevated purity of motive and conduct is not a dream 
of fancy, but that it is placed within our reach, and is 
the very end of being. 

I have spoken of history as refuting the low con- 
ceptions which men form of their nature; but, without 
looking back to former ages, may not every individual, 
amidst the corruptions of present society, discover in 
his own sphere some delightful examples and illustra- 
tions of human goodness? Does he not discern some 
whose names are never to be inscribed on the rolls of 


10 MORAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 


earthly fame, and who can boast no distinction of in- 
telligence or station, but whose sincere devotedness to 
God, whose gratitude in adversity, whose patience 
under injury, whose cheerful discharge of humble 
duties, whose unwearied zeal in doing good, afford a 
delightful proof of the connection between the human 
and angelic nature? Let none, then, say that the 
corruptions of society forbid us to believe that our 
nature is susceptible of high advancement. ‘The road 
to perfection is not unexplored. We have forerunners 
in this path. We see the traces of many steps directed 
to immortality. Men of like passions with ourselves 
have subdued temptation. ‘The good and great were 
not miracles in the moral world. We possess the same 
power, the same motives, the same heavenly guide, and 
the same promise of Divine assistance. . . . 

He who accustoms himself to reflect on Jesus Christ, 
on his apostles, on martyrs, on the best of men, on the 
loveliest and sublimest forms of humanity, who regards 
these high beings as his forerunners in the path of 
glory, and whose chief prayer is, that he may walk in 
their steps,—this man has learned the true secret of 
greatness. [hough on earth, he has taken his place 
in a higher world. 


IED RAS hy AtOe 


MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 


9. Man has a Kindred Nature with God 


That man has a kindred nature with God, and may 
bear most important and ennobling relations to him, 
seems to me to be established by a striking proof. 
This proof you will understand by considering, for a 
moment, how we obtain our ideas of God. Whence 
come the conceptions which we include under that 
august name? Whence do we derive our knowledge 
of the attributes and perfections which constitute the 
Supreme Being? I answer, we derive them from our 
own souls. The divine attributes are first developed 
in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator. 
The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the 
idea of our own spiritual nature, purified and enlarged 
to infinity. In ourselves are the elements of the 
Divinity. God, then, does not sustain a figurative 
resemblance to man. It is the resemblance of a parent 
to a child, the likeness of a kindred nature. 

We call God a Mind. He has revealed himself as 
a Spirit. But what do we know of mind but through 
the unfolding of this principle in our own breasts? 
That unbounded spiritual energy which we call God 
is conceived by us only through consciousness, through 
the knowledge of ourselves. We ascribe thought or 
intelligence to the Deity, as one of his most glorious 
attributes. And what means this language? ‘These 


terms we have framed to express operations or 
I 


12 MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 


faculties of our own souls. The Infinite Light would 
be for ever hidden from us did not kindred rays dawn 
and brighten within’ us. God is another name for 
human intelligence raised above all error and imper- 
fection, and extended to all possible truth. 

The same is true of God’s goodness. How do we 
understand this but by the principle of love implanted 
in the human breast?. Whence is it that this divine 
attribute is so faintly comprehended, but from the 
feeble development of it in the multitude of men? 
Who can understand the strength, purity, fulness, and 
extent of divine philanthropy, but he in whom selfish- 
ness has been swallowed up in love? 

The same is true of all the moral perfections of the 
Deity. ‘These are comprehended by us only through 
our own moral nature. It is conscience within us 
which, by its approving and condemning voice, inter- 
prets to us God’s love of virtue and hatred of sin; and 
without conscience, these glorious conceptions would 
never have opened on the mind. It is the law-giver 
in our own breasts which gives us the idea of divine 
authority, and binds us to obey. ‘The soul, by its sense 
of right, or its perception of moral distinctions, is 
clothed with sovereignty over itself, and through this 
alone it understands and recognizes the Sovereign of 
the universe. 


Likeness to God, p. 293. 


10. The Divine Powers of the Soul in the 
Lowliest Individual 


Let us not disparage that nature which is common 


MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 13 


to all men; for no thought can measure its grandeur. 
It is the image of God, the image even of his infinity, 
for no limits can be set to its unfolding. He who 
possesses the divine powers of the soul is a great being, 
be his place what it may. You may clothe him with 
rags, may immure him in a dungeon, may chain him 
to slavish tasks. But he is still great. You may 
shut him out of your houses; but God opens to him 
heavenly mansions. He makes no show indeed in 
the streets of a splendid city; but a clear thought, 
a pure affection, a resolute act of a virtuous will, 
have a dignity of quite another kind, and far higher 
than accumulations of brick and granite and plaster 
and stucco, however cunningly put together, or though 
stretching far beyond our sight. ‘The solemn con- 
flicts of reason with passion; the victories of moral 
and religious principle over urgent and almost irre- 
sistible solicitations to self-indulgence; the hardest 
sacrifices of duty, those of deep-seated affection and of 
the heart’s fondest hopes; the consolations, hopes, joys, 
and peace of disappointed, persecuted, scorned, de- 
serted virtue ;—these are of course unseen; so that the 
true greatness of human life is almost wholly out of 
sight. Perhaps in our presence, the most heroic deed 
on earth is done in some silent spirit, the loftiest pur- 
pose cherished, the most generous sacrifice made, and 
we do not suspect it. I believe this greatness to be 
most common among the multitude, whose names are 
never heard. Among common people will be found 
more of hardship borne manfully, more of unvar- 
nished truth, more of religious trust, more of that 


14 MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 


generosity which gives what the giver needs himself, 
and more of a wise estimate of life and death, than 
among the more prosperous. 


Self Culture, p. 12. 
11. The Soul was Made for God 


The truth is, that one spirit runs through all our 
affections, as far as they are pure; and love to man- 
kind, directed aright, is the germ and element of love 
to the Divinity. Whatever is excellent and venerable 
in human beings is of God, and in attaching ourselves 
to it we are preparing our hearts for its Author. 
Whoever sees and recognizes the moral dignity of 
impartial justice and disinterested goodness in his 
fellow-creatures, has begun to pay homage to the attri- 
butes of God. The first emotion awakened in the 
soul—we mean filial attachment—is the dawning of 
love to our Father in heaven. Our deep interest in 
the history of good and great men, our veneration 
towards enlightened legislators, our sympathy with 
philanthropists, our delight in mighty efforts of intel- 
lect consecrated to a good cause,—all these sentiments 
prove our capacity of an affectionate reverence to 
God; for He is at once the inspirer and the model of 
this intellectual and moral grandeur in his creatures. 
We even think that our love of nature has an affinity 
with the love of God, and was meant as a prepara- 
tion for it; for the harmonies of nature are only 
his wisdom made visible; the heavens, so sublime, 
are a revelation of his immensity; and the beauty 
of creation images to us his overflowing love 


MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 15 


and blessedness. To us, hardly any thing seems 
plainer than that the soul was made for God. Not 
only its human affections guide it to him; not only its 
deep wants, its dangers, and helplessness, guide it to 
him; there are still higher indications of the end for 
which it was made. It has a capacity of more than 
human love, a principle or power of adoration, which 
cannot bound itself to finite natures, which carries up 
the thoughts above the visible universe, and which, in 
approaching God, rises into a solemn transport, a 
mingled awe and joy, prophetic of a higher life; and a 
brighter signature of our end and happiness cannot be 
conceived. 


On Feénélon, p. 572. 


12. The New Social Life Involves a High 
Estimate of Human Nature 


How sublimely great is Man, when thus regarded 
as a spiritual being in fellowship with the Infinite 
Spirit! Within him is enshrined the idea of God. 
He calls God his Father. 

It is a joyful confirmation of my faith, then, to find 
in the human soul plain signatures of a Divine Prin- 
ciple, to find faculties allied to the attributes of God, 
faculties beginning to unfold into God’s image, and 
presages of an immortal life. 

Another practical use of the views now given of 
human nature is this; in proportion as they are re- 
ceived, they will transform essentially our modes of 
relationship, communication, and association with our 
fellow-beings. They will exalt us into a new social 


16 MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 


life. Indeed, they will give an entirely new character 
to social intercourse. That intercourse must be deter- 
mined by the estimate we form of human nature. He 
who looks on Man as little better than a brute will 
live with men as brutes. He will be wanting in rever- 
ence for their rights and feelings. He will think only 
of making them his instruments. He will be anxious 
chiefly to raise himself above them by outward dis- 
tinctions. He will care little how they are trampled 
under foot. He will scoff at the thought of living 
and dying for their happiness. Society is now de- 
graded through all its laws, institutions, and customs, 
by the blindness of men to the Divine Principle within 
themselves, and one another. Once diffuse this great 
truth through society, and it will work a mightier 
revolution than politicians ever dreamed of. It will 
ennoble all social duties. It will give sanctity to all 
social relations. It will breathe a deference and 
tender respect through manners, which will put to 
shame what now passes for courtesy. It will bring 
an end to that outward, ostentatious, superficial life, 
on which so many squander time, means, thought, and 
their best powers. It will awaken an intense effort for 
distressed humanity. It will send far and wide a 
spirit of reform, from the nursery to the hall of legis- 
lation. It will substitute the holy tie of Human 
Brotherhood for all artificial bonds of social order. 
With this great truth in his heart a man cannot insult 
a fellowman, for he beholds the Divine in the Human. 
He can call no being low in whom his own highest 
powers and affections are wrapped up. Can you con- 
ceive then of a truth so practical as this doctrine of 


MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD G7 


the greatness of man asa moral being? It will create 
a New Earth. 
God Revealed in the Universe and in Humanity, p. 


945, 0. 


13. Religion Reminds Human Nature of its 
Divine Parentage and Obligations 


Religion gives life, strength, elevation to the mind, 
by connecting it with the Infinite Mind; by teaching 
it to regard itself as the offspring and care of the 
Infinite Father, who created it that He might communi- 
cate to it his own spirit and perfections, who formed 
it for truth and virtue, who framed it for himself, 
who subjects it to sore trials, that by conflict and en- 
durance it may grow strong, and who has sent his Son 
to purify it from every sin, and to clothe it with im- 
mortality. It is religion alone which nourishes 
patient, resolute hopes and efforts for our own souls. 
Without it we can hardly escape self-contempt and the 
contempt of our race. Without God our existence 
has no support, our life no aim, our improvements no 
permanence, our best labors no sure and enduring re- 
sults, our spiritual weakness no power to lean upon, 
and our noblest aspirations and desires no pledge of 
being realized in a better state. Struggling virtue 
has no friend; suffering virtue no promise of victory. 
Take away God, and life becomes mean, and man 
poorer than the brute. I am accustomed to speak 
of the greatness of human nature; but it is great only 
through its parentage; great, because descended from 
God, because connected with a goodness and power 
from which it is to be enriched forever; and nothing 


18 MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 


but the consciousness of this connection can give that 
hope of elevation through which alone the mind is to 
rise to true strength and liberty. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 177. 


14. Christianity’s Great Design is the Infinite. 
Perfection of the Soul 


I see everywhere in Christianity this great design 
of liberating and raising the human mind on which I 
have enlarged. I see in Christianity nothing narrow- 
ing or depressing, nothing of the littleness of the sys- 
tems which human fear, and craft, and ambition have 
engendered. I meet there no minute legislation, no 
descending to precise details, no arbitrary injunctions, 
no yoke of ceremonies, no outward religion. Every 
thing breathes freedom, liberality, enlargement. I 
meet there not a formal, rigid creed, binding on the 
intellect through all ages the mechanical, passive repe- 
tition of the same words and the same ideas; but I 
meet a few grand, all-comprehending truths, which 
are given to the soul to be developed and applied by 
itself; given to it as seed to the sower, to be cherished 
and expanded by its own thought, love, and obedience 
into more and more glorious fruits of wisdom and 
virtue. I see it everywhere inculcating an enlarged 
spirit of piety and philanthropy, leaving each of us to 
manifest this spirit according to the monitions of his 
individual conscience. I hear it everywhere calling 
the soul to freedom and power, by calling it to guard 
against the senses, the passions, the appetites, through 
which it is chained, enfeebled, destroyed. I see it 
everywhere aiming to give the mind power over the 


MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 19 


outward world, to make it superior to events, to 
suffering, to material nature, to persecution, to death. 
I see it everywhere aiming to give the mind power 
over itself, to invest it with inward sovereignty, to 
call forth within us a mighty energy for our own ele- 
vation. I meet in Christianity only discoveries of a 
vast, bold, illimitable character, fitted and designed 
to give energy and expansion to the soul. By its doc- 
trine of a Universal Father, it sweeps away all the 
barriers of sect, party, rank, and nation in which men 
have labored to shut up their love; makes us members 
of an unbounded family; and establishes sympathies 
between man and the whole intelligent creation. In 
the character of Christ it sets before us moral perfec- 
tion, that greatest and most quickening miracle in 
human history, a purity which shows no stain or touch 
of the earth, an excellence unborrowed, unconfined, 
bearing no impress of any age or any nation, the very 
image of the Universal Father; and it encourages us, 
by assurances of God’s merciful aid, to propose this 
enlarged, unsullied virtue as the model and happiness 
of our moral nature. 


The Great Purpose of Christianity, p. 250. 


15. Within You is the Grandest Truth 


How is it that I get my ideas of God, of my fellow 
creatures, of the deeds, suffering, motives, which make 
up universal history? I comprehend all these from 
the consciousness of what passes in my own soul. ‘The 
mind within me is a type representative of all others, 
and therefore I can understand all. Whence come 
my conceptions of the intelligence, and justice, and 


20 MAN’S SONSHIP TO GOD 


goodness, and power of God? It is because my 
own spirit contains the germs of these attributes. ‘The 
ideas of them are first derived from my own nature, 
and therefore I comprehend them in other beings. 
Thus the foundation of all the sciences which treat 
of mind is laid in every man’s breast. The good man 
is exercising in his business and family faculties and 
affections which bear a*likeness to the attributes of 
the Divinity, and to the energies which have made the 
greatest men illustrious; so that in studying himself, 
in learning the highest principles and laws of his own 
soul, he is in truth studying God, studying all human 
history, studying the philosophy which has immortal- 
ized the sages of ancient and modern times. In every 
man’s mind and life all other minds and lives are 
more or less represented and wrapped up. To study 
other things, I must go into the outward world, and 
perhaps go far. ‘To study the science of spirit, I 
must come home and enter my own soul. The pro- 
foundest books that have ever been written do nothing 
more than bring out, place in clear light, what is pass- 
ing in each of your minds. So near you, so within 
you, is the grandest truth. 


Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 47. 


TORR Eb lGIOWs aie by i 
16. The Birth of the New Man 


There is a solemn moment in every man’s life 
when the soul begins to realize its relations and connec- 
tions with the invisible world eternally present; when 
it begins to measure the difference between the ma- 
terial and spiritual ends of life. Then God seems 
to come forth from the clouds and obscurity in which 
our indulged passions have enveloped him. Who has 
not had this great moment when new and strong 
aspirations to be at one with God were felt ?—when, 
like the icebound river beneath the influence of the 
sun, the soul bursts forth and flows freely, spreading 
joy and gladness with refreshing verdure over the 
barren plains of human life? At such moments of 
awakening, the first conviction that presses on us is our 
own unworthiness. Every stain of the soul, and short- 
coming, though acknowledged in words before now, 
has a new and fearful distinctness; a strong desire 
arises to purge ourselves of sin, and every step of 
moral effort and attainment opens new views of excel- 
lence and duty to God and man and becomes a new 
starting point of aspiration to God. A boundless at- 
mosphere opens on us where imagination may soar, 
hope expand, desire always obtain what refreshes the 
soul, and yet never expire; for God fills it with new 


energy forever. 
21 


22 THEERELIGIOWS CIE 


(From a Sermon on the text, “Ho! every one that 
thirsteth, come unto me,’ preached in the winter of 
1825-6. Miss E. P. Peabody made a copy of the 
Mss. and included the above passage, among others, 
in her Reminiscences, pp. 149 on). 


17. The Experience of the New Birth 


A religious character is an acquisition, and implies 
a change; a change which requires labor and prayer, 
which requires aid and strength from heaven; a change 
so great and important, that it deserves to be called a 
new birth. ‘The Christian is a new man. Once the 
dictates of conscience might have been heard; now 
they are obeyed. Once an occasional gratitude might 
have shed a transient glow through his heart; now 
the Divine goodness is a cherished thought, and he 
labors to requite it by an obedient life. Once his pas- 
sions were his lords; now he bows to the authority, 
and waits to hear the will, of God. Once human 
opinion was his guide, and human favor the reward 
he proposed; now he feels that another eye is upon 
him, that his heart and life are naked before God, and 
to approve himself to this righteous and unerring 
witness and judge is his highest ambition. Once he 
was ready to repine and despond when his wishes and 
labors were crossed; now he sees a providence in life’s 
vicissitudes, the discipline of a father in his sufferings, 
and bears his burdens, and performs his duties, with 
cheerful resignation to Him who assigns them. Once 
he was sufficiently satisfied with himself, or unwilling 
to feel his deficiencies; now he is humble, conscious of 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 28 


having sinned, desirous to discover his errors, contrite 
in his acknowledgment, earnest in his application to 
Divine mercy, and resolute in his opposition to temp- 
tation. Once the thought of a Saviour, suffering for 
human pardon and rising from the dead to confer 
immortality, excited little interest; now the promise, 
love, cross and resurrection of Jesus come home to 
him with power, and awaken gratitude and hope. 
Once he lived chiefly for himself, now he has learned 
to love his fellow-beings with a sincere and efficient 
kindness, to lose sight of himself in the prosecution 
of benevolent designs, to feel for the misery, the sins, 
of those around him, and to endure labors and sacri- 
fices that he may give relief to the frail body and peace 
and health to the immortal mind. 


(AC iy Ge iey 
18. The Seeking and Redeeming Love of God 


This grace or mercy of God, which seeks the lost, 
and receives and blesses the returning child, is pro- 
claimed by that faith which we advocate with a 
clearness and energy which cannot be surpassed. Unt- 
tarianism will not listen for a moment to the common 
errors by which this bright attribute is obscured. It 
will not hear of a vindictive wrath in God which must 
be quenched by blood; or of a justice which binds his 
mercy with an iron chain until its demands are satisfied 
to the full. It will not hear that God needs any 
foreign influence to awaken his mercy, but teaches 
that the yearnings of the tenderest human parent to- 
wards a lost child are but a faint image of God’s deep 


24 THE*RELIGIOUS LIFE 


and overflowing compassion towards erring man. 
This essential and unchangeable propensity of the Di- 
vine Mind to forgiveness, the Unitarian beholds 
shining forth through the whole word of God, and 
especially in the mission and revelation of Jesus 
Christ, who lived and died to make manifest the 
inexhaustible plenitude of divine grace; and, aided 
by revelation, he sees this’attribute of God everywhere, 
both around him and within him. He sees it in the 
sun which shines, and the rain which descends on the 
evil and unthankful; in the peace which returns to the 
mind in proportion to its return to God and duty; 
in the sentiment of compassion which springs up spon- 
taneously in the human breast towards the fallen and 
lost; and in the moral instinct which teaches us to 
cherish this compassion as a sacred principle, as an 
emanation of God’s infinite love. In truth, Unitar- 
ianism asserts so strongly the mercy of God, that the 
reproach thrown upon it is that it takes from the 
sinner the dread of punishment,—a reproach wholly 
without foundation; for our system teaches that Ged’s 
mercy is not an instinctive tenderness, which cannot 
inflict pain, but an all-wise love, which desires the true 
and lasting good of its object, and consequently desires 
first for the sinner that restoration to purity without 
which shame, and suffering, and exile from God and 
heaven are of necessity and unalterably his doom. 
Thus Unitarianism holds forth God’s grace and for- 
giving goodness most resplendently; and, by this mani- 
festation of him, it tends to awaken a tender and 
confiding piety; an ingenuous love, which mourns that 
it has offended; an ingenuous aversion to sin, not be- 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 12% 


cause sin brings punishment, but because it separates 
the mind from this merciful Father. 
Unitarian Christianity Favorable to Piety, p. 394. 


19. The Divine Grace Needed to Overcome Law- 
less Impulses and Sudden Temptations 


When heavenly aspirations enter the soul, they are 
like a light suddenly kindled in the dark. ‘They reveal 
undreamed-of defects. “They waken a new sense of 
sin. [hey display the deformity of motives, from 
which we had before acted without misgiving. The 
good man daily acquires a delicacy of moral percep- 
tion and feeling, before whose penetrating gaze his 
inmost imperfections are laid bare. His outward 
blemishes, his grosser faults, may be amended. But 
the sins which cling closest, which wind themselves 
subtly through the fibres of his nature,—his pride, 
vanity, self-conceit, self-indulgence, and, above all, 
the disloyalty of his self-will to the will of the All- 
Good,—these grow only more apparent. He finds 
that to purify the fountain-head of emotion in the soul, 
to cleanse its depths from all that defiles it, to drive 
out lurking ill from its recesses, and to untwine the 
serpent coils of selfishness from his purpose and plans, 
his aims and interests, is a vastly harder work than 
building fair walls of outer decorum. Some powerful 
excitement, some unwonted trial, will rouse into action 
lawless impulses, over whose subjection he had sung 
songs of triumph. Long dormant evils, awakened 
by adverse temptations, by a rush of prosperity, or a 
shock of adversity, by flattery and favor, or by per- 
secution and peril, will burst forth from their hiding- 


26 THE RELIGIOUS CIEE 


places, with such violence as almost to make him doubt 
the reality of his religious life. At such trying 
seasons, a secret ejaculation, a cry of the soul for 
God’s grace to rescue, brings home to the good man 
his instant dependence. With what grateful joy does 
he then hold fast to the assurance, that he is never 
alone, for the Father is with him, that the living 
source of all good is near to him as his own life, and 
ready to renew him with light and strength from 
heaven. 


Life a Divine Gift, p. 974. 
20. The Pure in Heart Shall See God 


My belief is, that one chief means of acquiring a 
vivid sense of God’s Presence is to resist, instantly and 
resolutely, whatever we feel to be evil in our hearts 
and lives, and at once to begin in earnest to obey the 
Divine Will as it speaks in conscience. You say that 
you desire a new and nearer knowledge of your 
Creator. Let this thirst for a higher consciousness of 
the Infinite Being lead you to oppose whatever you 
feel to be at war with God’s Purity, God’s Truth, and 
God’s Righteousness. Just in proportion as you gain 
victory over the evil of which you have become aware 
in yourself, will your spiritual eye be purged for a 
brighter perception of the Holy One. And this in 
its turn will strengthen you for a yet more strenuous 
resistance of sin—which will prepare you for still 
more intimate acquaintance with the Divine Nature 
and Character. ‘This attainment to a knowledge of 
God and this instant resistance of sin are most inti- 
mately and vitally related. Neither can advance be- 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 27 
yond the other. For God, is the All-Good, can be 


known only through our own growing goodness. No 
man living in deliberate violation of his duty, in wil- 
ful disobedience to God’s commands as taught by 
conscience, can possibly make progress in acquaintance 
with the Supreme Being. Vain are all acts of worship 
in church or in secret, vain are religious reading and 
conversation, without this instant fidelity. Unless you 
are willing to withstand the desire which the inward 
monitor, enlightened as it always is by this Divine 
Spirit, condemns, you must, you will, remain a stranger 
to your Heavenly Father. Evil passions and sensual 
impulses darken the intellect and sear the heart. 
Especially important is it—indispensable indeed— 
that self-indulgence and self-will shall be determinedly 
withstood. While these enthrall us, never can we 
comprehend the true glory of God. For His Glory 
is Perfect Love. If we would have our souls become 
the temples of the Supreme Being, filled with his light 
and joy and peace, we must utterly cast out the foul 
spirits which are at enmity with the Divine purity and 
disinterestedness. 


The Father’s Love for Persons, p. 958. 


21. Religion Provides a Motive for Moral 
Perfection 


Religion is the great spring of moral improvement. 
This confidence in God alone gives the hope of reach- 
ing Perfection. Hope inspires energy. But without 
trust in God I have no sufficient hope to excite and 
sustain persevering efforts after excellence. ‘True, 
there are other aids of virtue besides religion—the 


28 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


approbation and rebukes of conscience, the esteem 
and honour of fellow-beings, the present recompenses 
of uprightness and charity. But that watchful dis- 
cipline over the inmost thoughts and motives, that 
aspiration after disinterestedness and inward purity, 
that scorn of suffering in the way of well-doing, that 
preference of the soul’s health and progress to out- 
ward interests, that conflict with absorbing self-love— 
all of which are so essential to eminence and perma- 
nence of Rectitude—come not from ourselves. ‘They 
demand continual, fresh supplies of Divine Inspira- 
tion. So tremendous is the power of passion, so subtle 
is temptation, so contagious is the influence of example, 
that a man, conscious of no higher power than his 
own, and expecting no improvement but such as he can 
compass by his unaided will, might well despair of 
resisting the combined powers of evil. An Infinite 
Motive is needed to quicken us in this never-ending 
war with selfishness and the world. And where is 
such a motive to be found, if we believe in no Ever- 
lasting Friend of goodness, and in no Future Life 
where our present spiritual growth will be crowned 
with Perfection? 
The Perfecting Power of Religion, p. 986. 


22. True Religion Blends Itself with 
Human Life 


We approach our Creator by every right exertion 
of the powers He gives us. Whenever we invigorate 
the understanding by honestly and resolutely seeking 
truth, and by withstanding whatever might warp the 
judgment; whenever we invigorate the conscience by 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 29 


following it in opposition to the passions; whenever 
we receive a blessing gratefully, bear a trial patiently, 
or encounter peril or scorn with moral courage; when- 
ever we perform a disinterested deed; whenever we 
lift up the heart in true adoration to God; whenever 
we war against a habit or desire which is strengthening 
itself against our higher principles; whenever we think, 
speak, or act, with moral energy and resolute devotion 
to duty, be the occasion ever so humble, obscure, 
familiar ;—then the divinity is growing within us, and 
we are ascending towards our Author. ‘True religion 
thus blends itself with common life. We are thus to 
draw nigh to God without forsaking men. We are 
thus, without parting with our human nature, to clothe 
ourselves with the divine. 


Likeness to God, p. 298. 


23. The Sense of Duty and Idea of Right 
are God’s Gifts 


The sense of duty is the preteee gift of God. The 
idea of right is the primary and the highest revelation 
of God to the human mind, and all outward revela- 
tions are founded on and addressed to it. All mys- 
teries of science and theology fade away before the 
grandeur of the simple perception of duty which 
dawns on the mind of the little child. That percep- 
tion brings him into the moral kingdom of God. 
That lays on him an everlasting bond. He in whom 
the conviction of duty is unfolded becomes subject 
from that moment to a law which no-power in the 
universe can abrogate. He forms a new and indis- 
soluble connection with God, that of an accountable 


30 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


being. He begins to stand before an inward tribunal, 
on the decisions of which his whole happiness rests; 
he hears a voice which, if faithfully followed, will guide 
him to perfection, and in neglecting which he brings 
upon himself inevitable misery. We little understand 
the solemnity of the moral principle in every human 
mind. We think not how awful are its functions. 
We forget that it is the germ of immortality. Did 
we understand it, we should look with a feeling of 
reverence on every being to whom it is given. 


Honor due to all Men, p. 69. 


24. Moral Evil is the Worst Misfortune 


In all ages of the world, in every country and with 
all religions, it is the prevailing prayer to be delivered 
from misfortune; and in the pagan worship, the most 
costly offerings were heaped on the altars in the hope 
of averting calamities impending over the country. 
But what is the evil most to be dreaded? Suppose 
every one here assembled should offer up the petition 
to be delivered from the peculiar evil that besets him- 
self, and, as he believes, makes him unhappy. What 
a variety of petitions would be presented! One man 
would say—‘‘Deliver me from this rival’; another, 
‘Protect me from danger and illness’; another, “Pre- 
serve my property’; another, ‘Continue me my fam- 
ily”; another, “Save me from disgrace in the eyes of 
my fellow-men.” I do not say that some would not 
pray fervently and sincerely for deliverance from the 
thraldom of sin. But although here and there a 
feeble voice would utter this petition, would it not be 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 31 


disregarded amid the tumult of other and louder sup- 
plications? Would the prayer for deliverance and 
redemption predominate over those for temporal wel- 
fave @eplefeamnot la heatter prayers: arcriruitiess 
unless joined with a heart and mind unpolluted by sin. 

You are unhappy, and you ascribe to outward cir- 
cumstances the misery within—to ill health—the loss 
of property, bereavement, the perplexed state of your 
affairs, the east wind, the maladministration of govern- 
ment, the offensive prodofaneighbor. Yet [have read 
of those, yea I have seen those who, with all the mis- 
fortunes I have enumerated, are yet at peace: Indeed, 
the weapon with which the heart wounds itself is more 
envenomed and deadly than any other; and the stings 
of conscience are more severe than those inflicted by 
the scorpion’s fangs. Pray to be delivered from these 
evils, and the burden will be lessened. You cannot, 
by multiplying pleasures and occupations, escape from 
the clouds which a corrupt heart and sinful courses 
have gathered around you. Let the Lord lead you 
out of the way of temptation and deliver you from 
evil. 

From a Sermon copied from the original Mss. by 
Miss Peabody. (Reminiscences, p. 163). 


25. The Advantages of Conceiving God 
as Purely Spiritual 


My friends, hold fast the doctrine of a purely spirit- 
ual Divinity. It is one of the great supports and 
instruments of a vital piety. It brings God near as 
no other doctrine can. One of the leading purposes 


32 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


of Christianity is to give us an ever-growing sense of 
God’s immediate presence,—a consciousness of him in 
our souls. Now, just as far as corporeal or limited 
attributes enter into our conception of him, we remove 
him from us. He becomes an outward, distant being, 
instead of being viewed and felt as dwelling in the 
soul itself. It is an unspeakable benefit of the doc- 
trine of a purely spiritual God, that He can be re- 
garded as inhabiting, filling our spiritual nature; and, 
through this union with our minds, He can and does 
become the object of an intimacy and friendship such 
as no embodied being can call forth. 
Unitarian Christianity favorable to Piety, p. 389. 


26. The Character of a Man of Piety 


We esteem him, and him only, a pious man, who 
practically conforms to God’s moral perfections and 
government; who shows his delight in God’s benevo- 
lence by loving and serving his neighbor; his delight 
in God’s justice by being resolutely upright; his sense 
of God’s purity by regulating his thoughts, imagina- 
tion, and desires; and whose conversation, business, 
and domestic life are swayed by a regard to God’s 
presence and authority. In all things else men may de- 
ceive themselves. Disordered nerves may give them 
strange sights, and sounds, and impressions. Texts of 
Scripture may come to them as from heaven. ‘Their 
whole souls may be moved, and their confidence in 
God’s favor be undoubting. But in all this there is 
no religion. ‘The question is, Do they love God's com- 
mands, in which his character is fully expressed, and 
give up to these their habits and passions? Without 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 33 


this, ecstasy is a mockery. One surrender of desire 
to God’s will is worth a thousand transports. 
Unitarian Christianity, p. 381. 


27. Growth in Christian Excellence 


If we are growing in Christian excellence, we shall 
become more simple in our characters. We shall be 
the same everywhere. ‘The love of God and man will 
diffuse itself more and more through our common looks 
and words, emotions and actions. We shall feel this 
temper at home and abroad. It will influence us when 
no eye sees us, as well as when we are excited by num- 
bers. It will lead us peculiarly to secret, unobserved 
performance of duty, to habitual acts of kindness and 
devotion which lie beyond the notice of man. We 
shall not only be more serene in provocation, more 
cheerful in affliction, more moderate in prosperity, but 
everything will take a hue from religion, and lead to 
the exercise of pious, humble, disinterested atftec- 
fon Santee: 

We are not growing in Religion, if we make piety a 
substitute for kindness, or kindness a substitute for 
piety; if we hope by generosity to atone for extrava- 
gance or lust, or by honesty to atone for avarice. We 
are not growing in religion, if we are satisfied with per- 
forming occasional acts which suggest themselves to 
our minds, but make no exertion to learn how we may 
pursue the whole will of God. We are not growing 
in religion, if the thought of living habitually in any 
omission or any positive disobedience sits easy upon 
us, and makes no painful impression. If, on the con- 
trary, our consciences testify that God’s goodness and 


34 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


majesty excite us to seek universal obedience; if in our 
hearts we feel that every branch of known duty is 
the object of our attention and pursuit; if we can hope 
that not one sin of heart or life is habitually allowed 
and knowingly indulged,—then we may expect to grow 
in all excellence. ‘Then the various duties which we 
seek to perform will confirm one another. Our temper- 
ance will invigorate our-love, and this our piety, and 
piety will add stability to both. In a life in which all 
duties meet, there is a harmony which is favorable to 
all. One spirit circulates through all. ‘They grow 
like the limbs of a well-proportioned body. .. . 

When our duty and our happiness shall entirely 
coincide, then we shall be perfect beings; and in pro- 
portion as we approach this state, we approach per- 
LeCtionsy am 


Ltfeep also: 
28. The Essential Thing in Religion 


Inward sanctity, pure love, disinterested attachment 
to God and man, obedience of heart and life, sincere 
excellence of character, this is the one thing needful, 
this the essential thing in religion; and all things else, 
ministers, churches, ordinances, places of worship, all 
are but means, helps, secondary influences, and utterly 
worthless when separated from this. To imagine that 
God regards any thing but this, that He looks at any - 
thing but the heart, is to dishonor him, to express a 
mournful insensibility to his pure character. Good- 
ness, purity, virtue, this is the only distinction in God’s 
sight. This is intrinsically, essentially, everlastingly, 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 35 


and by its own nature lovely, beautiful, glorious, di- 
vine. It owes nothing to time, to circumstance, to 
outward connections. It shines by its own light. It 
is the sun of the spiritual universe. It is God himself 
dwelling in the human soul. Can any man think 
lightly of it because it has not grown up in a certain 
church, or exalt any church above it? My friends, 
one of the grandest truths of religion is the supreme 
importance of character, of virtue, of that divine 
spirit which shone out in Christ. ‘The grand heresy 
is to substitute any thing for this, whether creed, or 
form, or church. 


The Church, p. 443. 


29. The True Praise of God is Appropriation 
of His Goodness 


Do not, my friends, forget the great end for which 
Christ enjoins on us the worship of God. It is not 
that we may ingratiate ourselves with an almighty 
agent whose frown is destruction. It is that we may 
hold communion with an intelligence and goodness 
infinitely surpassing our own; that we may rise above 
imperfect and finite natures; that we may attach our- 
selves by love and reverence to the best Being in the 
universe; and that, through veneration and love, we 
may receive into our own minds the excellence, dis- 
interestedness, wisdom, purity, and power which we 
adore. ‘This reception of the divine attributes I desire 
especially to hold forth as the most glorious end for 
which God reveals himself. To praise him is not 
enough. That homage which has no power to as- 


36 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


similate us to him is of little or no worth. ‘The truest 
admiration is that by which we receive other minds 
into our own. ‘True praise is a sympathy with excel- 
lence, gaining strength by utterance. Such is the 
praise which God demands. 

The Great Purpose of Christianity, p. 249. 


30. The Church a Retreat from the World 


In the world we form ties of interest, pleasure, and 
ambition. We come together as creatures of time and 
sense for transient amusement or display. In the 
church we meet as God’s children; we recognize in 
ourselves something higher than this animal and 
worldly life. We come that holy feelings may spread 
from heart to heart. The church, in its true idea, is 
a retreat: from the world:. We meet init, thaten 
union with the holy, we may get strength to with- 
stand our common intercourse with the impure. We 
meet to adore God, to open our souls to his Spirit, and, 
by recognition of the common Father, to forget all 
distinction among ourselves, to embrace all men as 
brothers. ‘This spiritual union with the holy who are 
departed and who yet live, is the beginning of that 
perfect fellowship which constitutes heaven. It is 
to survive all ties. The bonds of husband and wife, 
parent and child, are severed at death; the union of 
the virtuous friends of God and man is as eternal 
as virtue, and this union is the essence of the true 
church. 

The Church, p. 442. 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE a7 


31. Come to Church to Worship in Spirit 
and in Truth 


Come, then, to this place to worship with the soul, 
to elevate the spirit to God. . . . Come to worship in 
spirit and in truth, that is, intelligently, rationally, 
with clear judgment, with just and honorable concep- 
tions of the Infinite Father, not prostrating your 
understandings, not renouncing the divine gift of 
reason, but offering an enlightened homage, such as 
is due to the Fountain of intelligence and truth. 
Come to worship with the heart as well as intellect, 
with life, fervor, zeal. Sleep over your business if 
you will, but not over your religion. Come to wor- 
ship with strong conviction, with living faith in a 
higher presence than meets the eye, with a feeling of 
God’s presence not only around you, but in the depths 
of your souls. Come to worship with a filial spirit, 
not with fear, dread, and gloom; not with sepulchral 
tones and desponding looks, but with humble, cheerful, 
boundless trust, with overflowing gratitude, with a love 
willing and earnest to do and to suffer whatever may 
approve your devotion to God. Come to worship 
him with what He most delights in, with aspiration 
for spiritual light and life; come to cherish and express 
desires for virtue, for purity, for power over temp- 
tation, stronger and more insatiable than spring up in 
your most eager pursuits of business or pleasure; and 
welcome joyfully every holy impulse, every accession 
of strength to virtuous purpose, to the love of God 
andman. Ina word, come to offer a refined, generous 
worship, to offer a tribute worthy of him who is the 


38 THE REDIGIOUS LIFE 


perfection of truth, goodness, beauty, and blessedness. 
Adore him with the calmest reason and the profound- 
est love, and strive to conform yourselves to what you 
adore. 


Christian Worship, p. 420. 
32. Go Forth from Church to do Good 


Go from this house to worship God by reverencing 
the human soul as his chosen sanctuary. Revere it 
in yourselves, revere it in others, and labor to carry it 
forward to perfection. Worship God within these 
walls, as universally, impartially good to his human 
offspring; and go forth to breathe the same spirit. 
Go forth to respect the rights and seek the true, endur- 
ing welfare of all within your influence. Carry with 
you the conviction that to trample on a human being, 
of whatever color, clime, rank, condition, is to trample 
on God’s child; that to degrade or corrupt a man, is 
to deface a holier temple than any material sanctuary. 
Mercy, love, is more acceptable worship to God than 
all sacrifices or outward offerings. ‘The most celestial 
worship ever paid on earth was rendered by Christ, 
when he approached man, and the most sinful man, 
as a child of God, when he toiled and bled to awaken 
what was divine in the human soul, to regenerate a 
fallen world. Be such the worship which you shall 
carry from this place. Go forth to do good with 
every power which God bestows, to make every place 
you enter happier by your presence, to espouse all 
human interests, to throw your whole weight into the 


THERE EIGIOUSCEIRE 39 


scale of human freedom and improvement, to with- 

stand all wrong, to uphold all right, and especially to 

give light, life, strength, to the immortal soul. 
Christian Worship, p. 421. 


33. The Best of all Blessings 


The best of all the blessings which God gives to 
man is a heart alive to what is great and good, which 
glows at the sight of excellence, and kindles with 
desire to become one with what it admires. ‘The best 
of all God’s blessings is a heart which is accustomed 
to aspire to him as its source and destination, which 
is alive to his all-pervading presence, which meets him 
in his works, converses with him in solitude, blesses 
him in affliction, prays to him with the assurance of 
being heard, and hopes from him all which infinite 
goodness can bestow. The best of all blessings is a 
heart which partakes God’s benevolence, which feels 
its relation to the universe, which is bound by friend- 
ship to the good, by sympathy to the afflicted, and by 
an overflowing tenderness to the narrow circle of 
domestic life. The best of all blessings is a heart 
which carries with it a consciousness of its unbounded 
destiny, which looks forward to eternity as its inher- 
itance, which hopes for perfect goodness, which feels 
alliance with higher orders of beings, and anticipates 
a union with the spirits of the just made perfect, with 
departed friends, and with the ascended Saviour. In 
such a state of heart is the true happiness of man. 


LTR We ey 


40 THE’RELIGIOUS LIFE 


34. The Peace of God which Passeth 
Understanding 


There is a twofold peace. ‘The first is negative. It 
is relief from disquiet and corroding care. It is re- 
pose after conflict and storms. But there is another 
and a higher peace, to which this is but the prelude, 
‘‘a peace of God which passeth all understanding,” 
and properly called “the kingdom of heaven within 
us.’) [his state is anything but negative.” lt "seine 
highest and most strenuous action of the soul, but an 
entirely harmonious action, in which all our powers 
and affections are blended in a beautiful proportion, 
and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than 
silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melo- 
dious sounds. Has the reader never known a season 
when, in the fullest flow of thought and feeling, in the 
universal action of the soul, an inward calm, profound 
as midnight silence, yet bright as the still summer 
noon, full of joy, but unbroken by one throb of 
tumultuous passion, has been breathed through his 
spirit, and given him a glimpse and presage of the 
serenity of a happier world? Of this character is the 
peace of religion. It is a conscious harmony with 
God and the creation, an alliance of love with all 
beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a 
surrender of every separate will and interest, a par- 
ticipation of the spirit and life of the universe, an 
entire concord of purpose with its infinite Original. 
This is peace, and the true happiness of man; and we. 
think that human nature has never entirely lost sight 
of this its great end. It has always sighed for a re- 


THE RELIGIOUS LIFE AI 


pose, in which energy of thought and will might be 
tempered with an all-pervading tranquillity. We 
seem to discover aspirations after this good, a dim 
consciousness of it, in all ages of the world. 


On Feénélon, p. 574. 


35. The Communion of Saints 


The Christian, imbued with the spirit of his re- 
ligion, maintains communion by grateful remembrance 
with those who have gone before, and especially with 
the more illustrious, whose holy services and sacri- 
fices for the Church have crowned them with halos of 
honor. He does not regard his religion merely as 
a blessing of the present moment, but studies with 
profoundest interest its past history. He remembers 
that it has come down to him through a long proces- 
sion of ages, and that it has been transmitted through 
the professions, sufferings, prayers, and virtues of 
millions who have lived and died for it before his 
birth. He delights to think of his religion under the 
similitude which Jesus gave, of a seed sown upon 
earth centuries ago, and to trace its growth— 
nourished, as it has been, with tears and sweat, the 
blood and anxious care, of the holiest persons in the 
records of the past. ‘To the true Christian no history 
is so affecting as that of the Church Universal. His 
soul unites with the pure and pious, who have clung 
to it in danger; who have fought beneath the banner 
of the Cross with spiritual weapons; who have con- 
quered the powers of evil by self-sacrifice, suffering, 
and death. The apostle, bearing Christian truth 
through rude and barbarous nations to the ends of the 


42 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


earth, armed with the spirit of all-enduring and all- 
conquering love, rises before him,—high above con- 
spicuous heroes and legislators—as the most majestic 
and commanding form of human nature in the dim 
regions of antiquity. He feels his personal debt to 
the faith and loyalty of these tried followers of Christ, 
and blesses them for those labors of which he daily 
reaps the fruits. Thus,-by memory, we have connec- 
tion as truly with the Saints risen in glory, as we have 
with those yet dwelling here. ‘Though dead, they 
still speak to us. And happy is it for us when we open 
our minds to the influences of the departed, and form 
intimacies with the great and good who have proceeded 
us into the world of peace! 


The Church Universal, p. 1017. 


THE CHARACTER AND WORK OF 
JESUS AND THE APOSTLES 


36. Love for Christ 


I can direct you to nothing in Christ more important 
than his tried, and victorious, and perfect goodness. 
Others may love Christ for mysterious attributes; I 
love him for the rectitude of his soul and his life. I 
love him for that benevolence which went through 
Judea, instructing the ignorant, healing the sick, giv- 
ing sight to the blind. I love him for that universal 
charity which comprehended the despised publican, the 
hated Samaritan, the benighted heathen, and sought 
to bring a world to God and to happiness. I love 
him for that gentle, mild, forbearing spirit, which no 
insult, outrage, injury, could overpower; and which 
desired as earnestly the repentance and happiness of 
its foes as the happiness of its friends. I love him 
for the spirit of magnanimity, constancy, and fearless 
rectitude with which, amidst peril and opposition, he 
devoted himself to the work which God gave him to 
do. I love him for the wise and enlightened zeal with 
which he espoused the true, the spiritual interests of 
mankind, and through which he lived and died to re- 
deem them from every sin, to frame them after his 
own godlike virtue. I love him, I have said, for his 
moral excellence; I know nothing else to love. I know 

43 


44 CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 


nothing so glorious in the Creator or his creatures. 
This is the greatest gift which God bestows, the great- 
est to be derived from his Son. 


Love to Christ, p. 321. 


37. The Universal Benevolence of Jesus 


The great distinction of Jesus was a philanthropy 
without mixture and without bounds; a philanthropy, 
uniting grandeur and meekness in beautiful propor- 
tions; a philanthropy as wise as it was fervent, which 
comprehended the true wants and the true good of 
man, which compassionated, indeed, his sufferings 
from abroad, but which saw in the soul the deep foun- 
tain of his miseries, and labored, by regenerating this, 
to bring him to a pure and enduring happiness. So 
peculiar, so unparalleled was the benevolence of Jesus, 
that it has impressed itself on all future times. ‘There 
went forth a virtue, a beneficent influence from his 
character, which operates even now. Since the death 
of Christ, a spirit of humanity, unknown before, has 
silently diffused itself over a considerable portion of 
the earth. A new standard of virtue has gradually 
possessed itself of the veneration of men. A new 
power has been acting on society, which has done 
more than all other causes combined to disarm the 
selfish passions, and to bind men strongly to one an- 
other and to God. What a monument have we here 
to the virtue of Jesus! and if Christianity has such 
a Founder, it must have come from Heaven. 

Evidences of Christianity, p. 219. 


CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 45 


38. The End for which Jesus Came 


The end for which Jesus Christ came was to convert 
men into real friends, to make them objects of each 
other’s attachment, to give them a common feeling 
and a common interest. He came to operate on the 
spirit, to produce inward effects, to implant a principle 
of true love, to fit men for the most endearing rela- 
tions. He came to adorn the human character, to 
strip it of everything fierce and repulsive, to make it 
attractive, to shed round it the mild lustre of benevo- 
lence. He came to take from men’s hands the im- 
plements of war, and to open their arms to embrace 
one another. He came to dispel distrust, suspicion, 
and jealousy, to render man worthy of the confidence 
of his brother, to bring men to that exalted state in 
which they will lay bare their whole souls without 
fear. He came to draw men off from separate inter- 
ests, and to win them to objects in which all may com- 
bine, to which all may lend their aid, and which will 
thus form the means of affectionate intercourse. He 
came to soften insensibility, to make many hearts beat 
in unison, to excite the tenderest concern for each 
individual’s welfare, and the most generous, disinter- 
ested labors for the common good. He came to root 
out envy, to give every person an interest in the excel- 
lence of others, to make us look with delight on all 
promises of goodness, to rouse us to be helpers of each 
other’s purity and perfection, to teach us to feel that 
the progress of our brethren is our own. He came to 
form such a union amongst men as would lead them 


46 CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 


to pour freely from their hearts the noblest views and 
feelings, and thus become the means of enkindling 
every grace and virtue, and mutual sources of love and 
wisdom. 


Life, p. 173 (1809). 


39. Jesus canimpart to Us Nothing so 
Precious as His Own Excellence 


I exhort you with calmness, but earnestness, to 
choose and adopt Jesus Christ as your example with 
the whole energy of your wills. I exhort you to re- 
solve on following him, not, as perhaps you have done, 
with a faint and yielding purpose, but with the full 
conviction that your happiness is concentrated in the 
force and constancy of your adherence to this celestial 
guide. . . . Let not the false views of Christianity 
which prevail in the world seduce you into the belief 
that Christ can bless you in any other way than by 
assimilating you to his own virtue, than by breathing 
into you his own mind. Do not imagine that any 
faith or love towards Jesus can avail you but that 
which quickens you to conform yourselves to his spot- 
less purity and unconquerable rectitude. Settle it as 
an immovable truth, that neither in this world nor in 
the next can you be happy but in proportion to the 
sanctity and elevation of your characters. Let no 
man imagine that through the patronage or protection 
of Jesus Christ, or any other being, he can find peace 
or any sincere good but in the growth of an enlightened, 
firm, disinterested, holy mind. Expect no good from 
Jesus any farther than you clothe yourselves with 
excellence. He can impart to you nothing so precious 


CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 47 


as himself, as his own mind; and believe me, my 
hearers, this mind may dwell in you. His sublimest 
virtues may be yours. ... The most lamentable 
scepticism on earth, and incomparably the most com- 
mon, is a scepticism as to the greatness, powers, and 
high destinies of human nature. In this greatness I 
desire to cherish an unwavering faith. Tell me not 
of the universal corruption of the race. Humanity 
has already, in not a few instances, borne conspicuously 
the likeness of Christ and God. The sun grows dim, 
the grandeur of outward nature shrinks, when com- 
pared with the spiritual energy of men who, in the 
cause of truth, of God, of charity, have spurned all 
bribes of ease, pleasure, renown, and have withstood 
shame, want, persecution, torture, and the most 
dreaded forms of death. In such men I learn that 
the soul was made in God’s image, and made to con- 
form itself to the loveliness and greatness of his Son. 
Imitableness of Christ’s Character, p. 315. 


40. Christ’s Cross is a Symbol of Victorious 
Love 


I am persuaded that a love to Christ of quite a low 
character is often awakened by an injudicious use of 
his sufferings. I apprehend that if the affection which 
many bear to Jesus were analyzed, the chief ingre- 
dient in it would be found to be a tenderness awakened 
by his cross. In certain classes of Christians, it is 
common for the religious teacher to delineate the 
bleeding, dying Saviour, and to detail his agonies, 
until men’s natural sympathy is awakened; and when 
assured that this deep woe was borne for themselves, 


48 CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 


they almost necessarily yield to the softer feelings of 
their nature. I mean not to find fault with this sensi- 
bility. Itis happy for us that we are made to be touched 
by others’ pains. Woe to him who has no tears for 
mortal agony! But in this emotion there is no virtue, 
no moral worth; and we dishonor Jesus when this is 
the chief tribute we offer him. I say there is no moral 
goodness in this feeling. To be affected, over powered 
by a crucifixion, is the most natural thing in the world. 
Who of us, let me ask, whether religious or not, ever 
went into a Catholic church, and there saw the picture 
of Jesus hanging from his cross, his head bending 
under the weight of exhausting suffering, his hands and 
feet pierced with nails, and his body stained with his 
open wounds, and has not been touched by the 
sight? . . . It is not the greatness of Christ’s sufter- 
ings on the cross which is to move our whole souls, 
but the greatness of the spirit with which he suffered. 
There, in death, he proved his entire consecration of 
himself to the cause of God and mankind. ‘There his 
love flowed forth towards his friends, his enemies, and 
the human race. It is moral greatness, it is victorious 
love, it is the energy of principle, which gives such 
interest to the cross of Christ. We are to look 
through the darkness which hung over him, through 
his wounds and pains, to his unbroken, disinterested, 
confiding spirit. To approach the cross for the pur- 
pose of weeping over a bleeding, dying friend, is to 
lose the chief influence of the crucifixion. We are to 
visit the cross, not to indulge a natural softness, 
but to acquire firmness of spirit, to fortify our 
minds for hardships and suffering in the cause 


CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 49 


of duty and of human happiness. To live as 
Christ lived, to die as Christ died, to give up ourselves 
as sacrifices to God, to conscience, to whatever good 
interest we can advance,—these are the lessons written 
with the blood of Jesus. 

Love to Christ, p. 324. 


41. dA Vision of Christ’s Reign 


Christ came to establish an empire of benevolence, 
peace, charity, on the ruins of malice, war, and dis- 
EOCd seg. 

At the thought of this reign of benevolence, the 
whole earth seems to me to burst forth into rejoicing. 
[ see the arts and civilization spreading gladness over 
deserted regions, and clothing the wilderness with 
beauty. Nations united in a league of philanthropy 
advance with constantly accelerating steps in knowl- 
edge and power. I see stupendous plans accomplished, 
oceans united, distant regions connected, and every 
climate contributing its productions and treasures to 
the improvement and happiness of the race. In pri- 
vate life, I see every labor lightened by mutual confi- 
dence and aid. Indigence is unknown. Sickness, and 
pain are mitigated, and almost disarmed, by the dis- 
interestedness of those who suffer, and by the sympathy 
which suffering awakens. Every blessing is heightened 
and diffused by participation. Every family, united, 
peaceful, and knowing no contention but for pre- 
eminence in doing good, is a consecrated and happy 
retreat, the image of heaven. ‘The necessary ills of 
life shrink into nothing. The human countenance 
puts on a new and brighter expression. Human 


so CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 


nature with its selfishness loses its base deformity, and 
is clothed with the glory of God, whose designs it 
embraces, with whose spirit it is imbued. 


Life, p. 256. 


42. The Wonderful Moral Revolution 
Wrought by the Gospel 


I go back to the age of Jesus Christ, and I am 
immediately struck with the commencement and rapid 
progress of the most remarkable revolution in the 
annals of the world. I see a new religion, of a charac- 
ter altogether its own, which bore no likeness to any 
past or existing faith, spreading in a few years 
through all civilized nations, and introducing a new 
era, a new state of society, a change of the human 
mind, which has broadly distinguished all following 
ages. Here is a plain fact, which the sceptic will not 
deny, however he may explain it. I see this religion 
issuing from an obscure, despised, hated people. Its 
Founder had died on the cross, a mode of punishment 
as disgraceful as the pillory or gallows of the present 
day. Its teachers were poor men, without rank, office, 
or education, taken from the fishing-boat and other 
occupations which had never furnished teachers to 
mankind. I see these men beginning their work on 
the spot where their Master’s blood had been shed, as 
of a common malefactor; and I hear them summoning 
first his murderers, and then all nations and all ranks, 
the sovereign on the throne, the priest in the temple, 
the great and the learned, as well as the poor and the 
ignorant, to renounce the faith and the worship which 
had been hallowed by the veneration of all ages, and to 


GHARAC FER AND WORK-OF JESUS © 51 


take the yoke of their crucified Lord. I see passion 
and prejudice, the sword of the magistrate, the curse 
of the priest, the scorn of the philosopher, and the 
fury of the populace, joined to crush this common 
enemy; and yet, without a human weapon and in op- 
position to all human power, I see the humble apostles 
of Jesus winning their way, overpowering prejudice, 
breaking the ranks of their opposers, changing enemies 
into friends, breathing into multitudes a calm spirit 
of martyrdom, and carrying to the bounds of civiliza- 
tion, and even into half-civilized regions, a religion 
which has contributed to advance society more than all 
other causes combined. 
Evidences of Christianity, p. 218. 


43. The Doctrine of Human Brotherhood 
Inspired Early Christianity 


We read of the mission of the apostles as if it were 
a thing of course. The thought perhaps never comes 
to us that they entered on a sphere of action until that 
time wholly unexplored; that not a track had pre- 
viously marked their path; that the great conception 
which inspired them, of converting a world, had never 
dawned on the sublimest intellect; that the spiritual 
love for every human being, which carried them over 
oceans and through deserts, amid scourgings and fast- 
ings, and imprisonments and death, was a new light 
from heaven breaking out on earth, a new revelation 
of the divinity in human nature. Then it was, that 
man began to yearn for man with a godlike love. 
Then a new voice was heard on earth, the voice of 
prayer for the recovery, pardon, happiness of a world. 


52 CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 


It was most strange, it was a miracle more worthy 
of admiration than the raising of the dead, that from 
Judea, the most exclusive, narrow country under 
heaven, which hated and scorned all other nations, and 
shrunk from their touch as pollution, should go forth 
men to proclaim the doctrine of human brotherhood, 
to give to every human being, however fallen or de- 
spised, assurances of God’s infinite love, to break down 
the barriers of nation and rank, to pour out their blood 
like water in the work of diffusing the spirit of universal 
love. Thus mightily did the character of Jesus act 
on the spirits of the men with whom he had lived. . . . 
Christ loved man, not masses of men; loved each and 
all, and not a particular country and class. ‘The hu 
man being was dear to him for his own sake, not for 
the spot of earth on which he lived, not for the lan- 
guage he spoke, not for his rank in life, but for his 
humanity, for his spiritual nature, for the image of 
God in which he was made. Nothing outward in 
human condition engrossed the notice or narrowed the 
sympathies of Jesus. He looked to the human soul. 
That he loved. That divine spark he desired to 
cherish, no matter where it dwelt, no matter how it 
was dimmed. He loved man for his own sake, and all 
men without exclusion or exception. 

Jesus was the first philanthropist. He brought with 
him a new era, the era of philanthropy; and from his 
time a new spirit has moved over the troubled waters 
of society, and will move until it has brought order and 
beauty out of darkness and confusion. 


The Philanthropist, p. 600. 


CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS © 53 


44. The Human Soul as the Kingdom 
of Christ 


Receive Christianity as given to raise you in the 
scale of spiritual being. Expect from it no good any 
farther than it gives strength and worth to your 
characters. Think not, as some seem to think, that 
Christ has a higher gift than purity to bestow, even 
pardon to the sinner. He does bring pardon. But 
once separate the idea of pardon from purity; once 
imagine that forgiveness is possible to him who does 
not forsake sin; once make it an exemption from out- 
ward punishment, and not the admission of the re- 
formed mind to favor and communion with God; and 
the doctrine of pardon becomes your peril, and a sys- 
tem so teaching it is fraught with evil. Expect no 
good from Christ any farther than you are exalted 
by his character and teaching. Expect nothing from 
his cross unless a power comes from it strengthening 
you to “bear his cross,’”’ to ‘‘drink his cup,’’ with his 
own unconquerable love. ‘This is its highest influence. 
Look not abroad for the blessings of Christ. His 
reign and chief blessings are within you. The human 
soul is his kingdom. There he gains his victories, 
there rears his temples, there lavishes his treasures. 
His noblest monument is a mind redeemed from iniq- 
uity, brought back and devoted to God, forming itself 
after the perfection of the Saviour, great through its 
power to suffer for truth, lovely through its meek 
and gentle virtues. No other monument does Christ 
desire; for this will endure and increase in splendor 
when earthly thrones shall have fallen, and even when 


54 CHARACTER AND WORK OF JESUS 


the present order of the outward universe shall have 
accomplished its work and shall have passed away. 
The Great Purpose of Christianity, p. 253. 


THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 
45. Ihe Life of Love 


A profound conviction of God’s moral purposes to 
men, of his design to exalt the soul infinitely, must 
kindle a purpose in us vast and enduring as his own, 
give us faith in the possibility of redeeming mankind, 
give us a respect for every individual, make us feel 
our unity with all. God must be regarded as en- 
joining this unlimited love, as calling us to universal 
brotherhood, and forbidding all that separates us from 
our kind. . . . We are to be animated with this new 
life of love,—of love for man as man,—a love which 
embraces all, of every rank and character,—which for- 
gets divisions and outward distinctions,—breaks down 
the old partition walls,—sees a divine spark in every 
intelligence,—longs to redress the existing inequalities 
of society, to elevate all conditions of men to true 
dignity, to use wealth only as a means of extensive 
union, not of separation,—which substitutes generous 
motives for force,—which sees nothing degrading in 
labor, but honors all useful occupation,—which every- 
where is conscious of the just claims and rights of all, 
resisting the idolatry of the few, ceasing to worship 
the great, calling upon the mighty to save, not crush, 
the weak, from reverence for our common nature,— 
and which, in a word, recognizes the infinite worth of 
every human spirit. 

Life, p. 376 (undated mss.). 

55 


56 THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 


46. All Great Virtues Bear the Impress 
of Self-Denial 


When you read history, what is it which most inter- 
ests and absorbs you, which seizes on the imagination 
and memory, which agitates the soul to its centre? 
Who is the man whom you select from the records of 
time as the object of your special admiration? Is it 
he who lived to indulge himself ? whose current of life 
flowed most equably and pleasurably? whose desires 
were crowned most liberally with means of gratifica- 
tion? whose table was most luxuriantly spread? and 
whom fortune made the envy of his neighborhood by 
the fulness of her gifts? Were such the men to whom 
monuments have been reared, and whose memories, 
freshened with tears of joy and reverence, grow and 
flourish and spread through every age? Oh,no! He 
whom we love, whose honor we most covet, is he who 
has most denied and subdued himself; who has made 
the most entire sacrifice of appetites and passions and 
private interest to God, and virtue, and mankind; who 
has walked in a rugged path, and clung to good and 
great ends in persecution and pain; who, amidst the 
solicitations of ambition, ease, and private friendship, 
and the menaces of tyranny and malice, has listened 
to the voice of conscience, and found a recompense for 
blighted hopes and protracted suffering in conscious 
uprightness and the favor of God. Who is it that 
is most lovely in domestic life? It is the martyr to do- 
mestic affection, the mother forgetting herself, and 
ready to toil, suffer, die for the happiness and virtue 


THE CRATES OF NOBLE CHARACTER (57 


of her children. Who is it that we honor in public 
life? It is the martyr to his country, he who serves 
her not when she has honors for his brow and wealth 
for his coffers, but who clings to her in her danger and 
fallen glories, and thinks life a cheap sacrifice to her 
safety and freedom. Whom does the church retain 
in most grateful remembrance, and pronounce holy 
and blessed? ‘The self-denying, self-immolating apos- 
tle, the fearless confessor, the devoted martyr, men 
who have held fast the truth even in death, and be- 
queath it to future ages amidst blood. Above all, to 
what moment of the life of Jesus does the Christian 
turn as the most affecting and sublime illustration of 
his divine character? It is that moment when, in the 
spirit of self-sacrifice, denying every human passion, 
and casting away every earthly interest, he bore the 
agony and shame of the cross. ‘Thus all great virtues 
bear the impress of self-denial. 


On Self-Denial, p. 342. 
47. Precepts for Self Discipline 


in Virtue 


How continually selfishness breaks forth! It must 
be resisted perpetually. Let nothing be spoken or 
done to display self; but let simple love be the spring. 
Do I know what such love will rise to, if cultivated ? 

Let me, when in society with those who differ from 
me, feel the importance of sincerity and independence. 
Let me consider that virtue is infinitely more impor- 
tant than their good opinion. Let me leave to God 
the impression which I make, when I frankly express 


58 THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 


feelings and opinions. Let me remember that ulti- 
mately the friendship of the good will be secured by 
the discharge of duty. 

In conversation, let me feel that I shall gain more by 
candor than by victory. 

Let me cherish frankness by thinking of the noble- 
ness of the quality. Restraint prevents expressions of 
affection, makes society painful, chills the heart. 

Eternal life is holy life,—the exercise of Jove to 
God and all beings. 

We must be babes, if we would have God revealed 
to us; must feel the weakness, ignorance, helplessness, 
dependence, wants, of little children. We must be- 
come fools, and see that we know nothing. We must 
hunger and thirst, and feel a void, as having nothing. 
Amlababe? Do [I sit low? 

Attain a single, simple heart. Never speak to 
God or man without desiring the end I profess. 
Let me beware of formality in discharging religious 
duties. Let prayer, conversation, preaching, all flow 
from the heart. Let me first feel the force of truth 
myself, and then impress it upon others. Let me feel 
the force of every truth and every argument with which 
I am conversant. Let me be not learned, but wise. 

Let me apply to my most painful, humble duties first 
and most attentively. 

Let me continually engage in labors enjoined by 
God, and with the ends and temper he requires, and 
feel a perfect confidence in him for support. Let 
my whole life be a leaning upon God. 

Let me place duty on the ground of privilege, and 
consider every opportunity of employing time usefully 


GE baPikRAE ES OReNOBUE CHARACTER = 59 


a favor; and ask only, What is duty? in every state. 
When any particular sin recurs to my mind, let me 

connect it with an act of humiliation before God, so 

that even sin shall lead to a communion with God. 

Whenever I enjoy, let me ask, How can I impart 
and diffuse this happiness? and let me make every 
pleasure a bond of friendship, a ground of communion, 
and esteem it chiefly on this account. When I suffer, 
let me ask, How can I relieve similar suffering, 
wherever it exists? and so quicken sympathy and im- 
prove experience. 

When I have any portion of time not devoted to any 
particular purpose, let me ask, Can I not spend it with 
God? Let me seize it as a peculiarly privileged 
season. 

Have access to God, as if introduced to his presence. 
Seek God; seek the sight of him; observe him in all 
things. 

Let me every day give away something, and daily 
deny myself something, that I may have more to give. 


fea DAL: 
48. The Lust of Pleasure and Greed is Insatiable 


Our appetites and desires carry with them a prin- 
ciple of growth or tendency to enlargement. They 
expand by indulgence, and, if not restrained, they fill 
and exhaust the soul, and hence are to be strictly 
watched over and denied. Nature has set bounds 
to the desires of the brute, but not to human desire, 
which partakes of the illimitableness of the soul to 
which it belongs. In brutes, for example, the animal 
appetites impel to a certain round of simple gratifica- 


60 THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 


tions, beyond which they never pass. But man, having 
imagination and invention, is able by these noble facul- 
ties to whet his sensual desires indefinitely. He is able 
to form new combinations of animal pleasures, and 
to provoke appetite by stimulants. ‘The East gives 
up its spices, and the South holds not back its vintage. 
Sea and land are rifled for luxuries. Whilst the ani- 
mal finds its nourishment in a few plants, perhaps in 
a single blade, man’s table groans under the spoils of 
all regions; and the consequence is that in not a few 
cases the whole strength of the soul runs into appetite, 
just as some rich soil shoots up into poisonous weeds, 
and man, the rational creature of God, degenerates 
into the most thorough sensualist. As another illus- 
tration of the tendency of our desires to grow and 
usurp the whole mind, take the love of property. We 
see this every day gaining dangerous strength, if left 
to itself, if not denied or curbed. It is a thirst which is 
inflamed by the very copiousness of its draughts. 
Anxiety grows with possession. Riches become dearer 
by time. ‘The love of money, far from withering in 
life’s winter strikes deeper and deeper root in the heart 
of age. He who has more than he can use or manage, 
grows more and more eager and restless for new gains, 
muses by day and dreams by night of wealth; and in 
this way the whole vigor of his soul, of intellect and 
affection, shoots up into an intense, unconquerable, and 
almost infinite passion for accumulation. 


On Self-Denial, p. 340. 


49. Moral Energy and Perseverance 
Young man, remember that the only test of good- 


THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 61 


ness, virtue, is moral strength, self-denying energy. 
You have generous and honorable feelings, you scorn 
mean actions, your heart beats quick at the sight or 
hearing of courageous, disinterested deeds, and all 
these are interesting qualities; but remember they are 
the gifts of nature, the endowments of your susceptible 
age. They are not virtue. God and the inward 
monitor ask for more. ‘The question is, Do you 
strive to confirm into permanent principles the gener- 
ous sensibilities of the heart? Are you watchful to 
suppress the impetuous emotions, the resentments, the 
selfish passionateness which are warring against your 
honorable feelings? Especially do you subject to your 
moral and religious convictions the love of pleasure, 
the appetites, the passions which form the great trials 
of youthful virtue? Here is the field of conflict to 
which youth is summoned. ‘Trust not to occasional 
impulses of benevolence, to constitutional courage, 
frankness, kindness, if you surrender yourselves basely 
to the temptations of your age. No man who has 
made any observations of life but will tell you how 
often he has seen the promise of youth blasted; intel- 
lect, genius, honorable feeling, kind affection, over- 
powered and almost extinguished through the want of 
moral strength, through a tame yielding to pleasure 
and the passions. Place no trust in your good pro- 
pensities, unless these are fortified, and upheld, and 
improved by moral energy and self-control. To all 
of us, in truth, the same lesson comes. If any man 
will be Christ’s disciple, sincerely good, and worthy 
to be named among the friends of virtue, if he will 
have inward peace and the consciousness of progress 


62 THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 


towards heaven, he must deny himself, he must take 
the cross, and follow Christ in the renunciation of 
every gain and pleasure inconsistent with the will of 
God. 

Self-Denial, p. 346. 


50. The Sense of Beauty an Element of 
Moral Culture 


In looking at our nature, we discover, among its 
admirable endowments, the sense or perception of 
beauty. We see the germ of this in every human 
being, and there is no power which admits greater 
cultivation; and why should it not be cherished in all? 
It deserves remark, that the provision for this princi- 
ple is infinite in the universe. There is but a very 
minute portion of the creation which we can turn into 
food and clothes, or gratification for the body; but the 
whole creation may be used to minister to the sense of 
beauty. Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It un- 
folds in the numberless flowers of the spring. It 
waves in the branches of the trees and the green blades 
of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth and sea, 
and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious 
stone. And not only these minute objects, but the 
ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the 
stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with 
beauty. ‘The universe is its temple; and those men 
who are alive to it cannot lift their eyes without feel- 
ing themselves encompassed with it on every side. 
Now this beauty is so precious, the enjoyments it gives 
are so refined and pure, so congenial with our tender- 
est and noble feelings, and so akin to worship, that it 


THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 63 


is painful to think of the multitude of men as living 
in the midst of it, and living almost as blind to it as 
if, instead of this fair and glorious sky, they were 
tenants of a dungeon. An infinite joy is lost to the 
world by the want of culture of this spiritual endow- 
ment. No man receives the true culture of a man in 
whom the sensibility to the beautiful is not cherished; 
and I know of no condition in life from which it 
should be excluded. 
Self-Culture, p. 18. 


51. Magnanimity in Misfortune 


We see Milton’s magnanimity in the circumstances 
under which “Paradise Lost’? was written. It was 
not in prosperity, in honor, and amidst triumphs, but 
in disappointment, desertion, and in what the world 
calls disgrace, that he composed that work. The 
cause with which he had identified himself had failed. 
His friends were scattered; liberty was trodden under 
foot, and her devoted champion was a by-word among 
the triumphant royalists. But it is the prerogative 
of true greatness to glorify itself in adversity, and to 
meditate and execute vast enterprises in defeat. Miul- 
ton, fallen in outward condition, afflicted with blind- 
ness, disappointed in his best hopes, applied himself 
with characteristic energy to the sublimest achieve- 
ment of intellect, solacing himself with great thoughts, 
with splendid creations, and with a prophetic confi- 
dence that, however neglected in his own age, he was 
framing in his works a bond of union and fellowship 
with the illustrious spirits of a brighter day. We de- 
light to contemplate him in his retreat and last years. 


64 THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER 


To the passing spectator, he seemed fallen and for- 
saken, and his blindness was reproached as a judgment 
from God. But though sightless, he lived in light. 
His inward eye ranged through universal nature, and 
his imagination shed on it brighter beams than the 
sun. Heaven and hell and paradise were open to 
him. He visited past ages, and gathered round him 
ancient sages and heroes, prophets and apostles, brave 
knights and gifted bards. As he looked forward, ages 
of liberty dawned and rose to his view, and he felt 
that he was about to bequeath to them an inheritance 
of genius, ‘““‘which would not fade away,” and was to 
live in the memory, reverence, and love of remotest 
generations. 


On Milton, p. 509. 


52. True Greatness is Unselfish and 
Unaffected 


Greatness is not a secret, solitary principle, working 
by itself and refusing participations, but frank and 
open-hearted,—so large in its views, so liberal in its 
feelings, so expansive in its purposes, so beneficent in 
its labors, as naturally and necessarily to attract sym- 
pathy and co-operation. It is selfishness that repels 
men; and true greatness has not a stronger character- 
istic than its freedom from every selfish taint. So far 
from being imprisoned in private interests, it covets 
nothing which it may not impart. So far from being 
absorbed in its own distinctions, it discerns nothing so 
quickly and joyfully as the capacities and pledges of 
greatness in others, and counts no labors so noble as 


THE TRAITS OF NOBLE CHARACTER | 65 


to call forth noble sentiments, and the consciousness 
of a divine power, in less improved minds, 

I know that those who call themselves great on 
earth are apt to estrange themselves from their in- 
feriors; and the multitude, cast down by their high 
bearing, never think of proposing them as examples. 
But this springs wholly from the low conceptions of 
those whom we call the great, and shows a mixture of 
vulgarity of mind with their superior endowments. 
Genuine greatness is marked by simplicity, unostenta- 
tiousness, self-forgetfulness, a hearty interest in others, 
a feeling of brotherhood with the human family, and 
a respect for every intellectual and immortal being 
as capable of progress towards its own elevation. A 
superior mind, enlightened and kindled by just views 
of God and of the creation, regards its gifts and 
powers as so many bonds of union with other beings, 
as given it not to nourish self-elation, but to be em- 
ployed for others, and still more to be communicated 
Tomeoticism ouch sp reatness abas no, reserve, and 
especially no affected dignity of deportment. It is too 
conscious of its own power to need, and too benevo- 
lent to desire, to entrench itself behind forms and 
ceremonies; and when circumstances permit such a 
character to manifest itself to inferior beings, it is 
beyond all others the most winning, and most fitted to 
impart itself, or to call forth a kindred elevation of 
feeling. | far 

Imitableness of Christ's Character, p. 312. 


med 


LE PORIGH PeCON DUG TS @ BATE 


53. “Consider What is Right as What 
Must be Done” 


(Advice to His Son on Entering School) 


Remember that it is the distinction of a man to 
govern himself, and that a man who cannot keep to his 
resolutions and pursue his course of study or action 
firmly and steadily must take a low place in the world, 
and, what is worse, in his own esteem. 

I beseech you in every temptation to be true, honest, 
frank, upright. Whatever you may suffer, speak the 
truth. Be worthy of the entire confidence of your 
associates. Consider what is right as what must be 
done. It is not necessary that you should keep your 
property, or even your life, but it is necessary that you 
should hold fast your integrity. 

Enter in the school with the firm purpose of obeying 
all the laws. Do nothing which you need to hide. 
Make it a matter of honor and principle to do nothing 
which can injure the institution of which you are a 
member. Breathe no spirit of disaffection into your 
associates. Be the friend of good order. If at any 
time you think yourself aggrieved by your teachers, 
go to them frankly, and urge your complaints calmly 
and respectfully. 

Treat your companions generously and honestly; 


PR bens Te CONDUCISOR WINE ~ 67 


sympathize with them, and seek their good-will as far 
as your principles will admit. But never sacrifice these. 
Never be laughed out of your virtue. Take your 
ground openly, manfully, and you will at length com- 
mand respect. Do not let your companions depress 
your ideas of right. ‘They cannot do you a greater 
injury. 

Reverence God, love him, and live as in his presence. 
Every morning you will be remembered in our prayers. 
Every morning remember us in yours. At that hour, 
let us meet at the mercy-seat of our common Father. 


HE Cee O57. 


54. Evil is Evil no Matter at Whose Door 
It Lies 


It is a solemn truth, not yet understood as it should 
be, that the worst institutions may be sustained, the 
worst deeds performed, the most merciless cruelties 
inflicted, by the conscientious and the good. History 
teaches no truth more awful, and proofs of it crowd 
on us from the records of the earliest and latest times. 
Thus, the worship of the immoral deities of hea- 
thenism was sustained by the great men of antiquity. 
The bloodiest and most unrighteous wars have been in- 
stigated by patriots. For ages the Jews were thought 
to have forfeited the rights of men, as much as the 
African race at the South, and were insulted, spoiled, 
and slain, not by mobs, but by sovereigns and prelates, 
who really supposed themselves avengers of the cruci- 
fied Saviour. ‘Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, men of 
singular humanity, doomed Christians to death, sur- 
rendering their better feelings to what they thought 


68°. THE RIGHD GONDUCTOF ELE 


the safety of the state. ew names in history are 
more illustrious than Isabella of Castile. She was 
the model, in most respects, of a noble woman. But 
Isabella outstripped her age in what she thought pious 
zeal against heretics. Having taken lessons in her 
wars against the Moors, and in the extermination of 
the Jews, she entered fully into the spirit of the Inqui- 
sition; and by her great moral power contributed more 
than any other sovereign to the extension of its fearful 
influence; and thus the horrible tortures and murders 
of that infernal institution, in her ill-fated country, lie 
very much at her door. Of all the causes which have 
contributed to the ruin of Spain, the gloomy, unrelent- 
ing spirit of religious bigotry has wrought most deeply; 
so that the illustrious Isabella, through her zeal for 
religion and the salvation of her subjects, sowed the 
seeds of her country’s ruin. It is remarkable, that 
Spain, in her late struggle for freedom, has not pro- 
duced one great man; and at this moment the country 
seems threatened with disorganization; and it is to 
the almost universal corruption, to the want of mutual 
confidence, to the deep dissimulation and fraud, which 
the spirit of the Inquisition, the spirit of misguided 
religion, has spread through society, that this degrada- 
tion must chiefly be traced. ‘The wrongs, woes, 
cruelties, inflicted by the religious, the conscientious, 
are among the most important teachings of the past. 
Nor has this strange mixture of good and evil ceased. 
Crimes, to which time and usage have given sanction, 
are still found in neighborhood with virtue. Ex- 
amples taken from other countries stagger belief, but 
are true. Thus, in not a few regions, the infant is 


THE RIGHT CONDUCT OF LIFE 69 


cast out to perish by parents who abound in tender- 
ness to their surviving children. Our own _ enor- 
mities are to be understood hereafter. Slavery is not, 
then, absolved of guilt by the virtues of its supporters, 
nor are its wrongs on this account a whit less tolerable. 
The Inquisition was not a whit less infernal because 
sustained by Isabella. Wars are not a whit less mur- 
derous because waged for our country’s glory; nor was 
the slave-trade less a complication of unutterable 
cruelties because our fathers brought the African here 
to make him a Christian. 

The great truth now insisted on, that evil is evil, no 
matter at whose door it lies, and that men acting from 
conscience and religion may do nefarious deeds, needs 
to be better understood, that we may not shelter our- 
selves or our institutions under the names of the 
great or the good who have passed away. 


On Emancipation, p. 840. 


55. Wrong Methods are not Sanctified 
by Holy Ends 


One great principle, which we should lay down as 
immovably true, is, that if a good work cannot be 
carried on by the calm, self-controlled, benevolent 
spirit of Christianity, then the time for doing it has 
not come. God asks not the aid of our vices. He 
can overrule them for good, but they are not the 
chosen instruments of human happiness. 

We, indeed, need zeal,—fervent zeal,—such as will 
fear no man’s power, and shrink before no man’s 
frown,—such as will sacrifice life to truth and free- 
dom. But this energy of will ought to be joined with 


70. |THE RIGHH CONDUCT OF LIFE 


deliberate wisdom and universal charity. It ought 
to regard the whole in its strenuous efforts for a part. 
Above all, it ought to ask, first, not what means are 
most effectual, but what means are sanctioned by the 
moral law and by Christian love. _We ought to think 
much more of walking in the right path than of reach- 
ing our end. We should desire virtue more than suc- 
cess. If by one wrong deed we could accomplish the 
liberation of millions, and in no other way, we ought 
to feel that this good, for which, perhaps, we had 
prayed with an agony of desire, was denied us by God, 
was reserved for other times and other hands. ‘The 
first object of a true zeal is, not that we may prosper, 
but that we may do right, that we may keep ourselves 
unspotted from every evil thought, word, and deed. 
Under the inspiration of such a zeal, we shall not find 
in the greatness of an enterprise an apology for in- 
trigues or for violence. We shall not need immediate 
success to spur us to exertion. We shall not distrust 
God because he does not yield to the cry of human 
impatience. We shall not forsake a good work be- 
cause it does not advance with a rapid step. Faith 
in truth, virtue, and Almighty Goodness, will save us 
alike from rashness and despair. 


On Slavery, p. 734. 


56. Righteousness is the Truest Expediency 


To the exposition of duty now given it will be ob- 
jected, that the morality of the closet is not the moral- 
ity of real life; that there is danger of pushing princl- 
ples to extremes; that difficulties are to be grappled 
with in the conduct of public affairs which retired men 


Pie RichH CONDUCT OR LIRR 71 


cannot understand; that there must be a compromise 
between the ideal and the actual; and that our rigid 
rules must be softened or bend, when consequences, 
unusually serious, will attend their observance. ‘These 
commonplaces are not wholly without truth. Moral- 
ity is sometimes turned, by inexperienced men, into 
rant and romance. Solitary dreamers, exalting imag- 
ination above reason and conscience, make life a stage 
for playing showy, dazzling parts, which pass with 
them for beautiful or heroic. I have little more sym- 
pathy with these over-refined, sublimated moralists 
than with the common run of coarse, low-minded poli- 
ticians. Duty is something practicable, something 
within reach, and which approves itself to us not in 
moments of feverish excitement, but of deliberate 
thought. Good sense, which is another name for that 
calm, comprehensive reason which sees things as they 
are, and looks at all the circumstances and consequences 
of actions, is as essential to the moral direction of life 
as in merely prudential concerns. Still more, there is 
a large class of actions, the relations of which are so 
complicated, and the consequences so obscure, that 
individual judgment is at fault, and we are bound to 
acquiesce in usage, especially if long established, be- 
cause this represents to us the collective experience of 
the race. All this is true. But it is also true that 
there are grand, fundamental, moral principles, which 
shine with their own light, which approve themselves 
to the reason, conscience, and heart, and which have 
gathered strength and sanctity from the experience of 
nations and individuals through all ages. ‘These are 
never to be surrendered to the urgency of the moment, 


72 WHE RIGHRRECONDUGI OR EIEE 


however pressing, or to imagined interests of indi- 
viduals or states. Let these be sacrificed to hope or 
fear, and our foundation is gone, our anchor slipped. 
We have no fixtures in our own souls, nothing to rely 
on. No ground of faith in man is left us. Selfish, 
staggering policy becomes the standard of duty, the 
guide of life, the law of nations. 
On Slavery, p. 789. 


57. The Saving Grace of the Loving Heart 


Strive, each of you, to bring at least one human 
being to the happiness for which God made him. 
_Awaken him to some inward moral activity; for on 
this, not on mere outward teaching, the improvement 
of rich and poor alike depends. Strive to raise him 
above the crushing necessities of the body, by turning 
him to the great, kindling purpose of his being. 
Show him that the fountain of all happiness is 
within us, and that this fountain may be opened alike 
in every soul. Show him how much virtue and peace 
he may gain by fidelity to his domestic relations; how 
much progress he may make by devout and resolute 
use of his best opportunities; what a near union he may 
form with God; how beneficent an influence he may 
exert in his narrow sphere; what heroism may be exer- 
cised amidst privations and pains; how suffering may 
be turned to glory; how heaven may begin in the most 
unprosperous condition on earth. Surely he who can 
carry such truths to any human being is charged with a 
glorious mission from above. 


The Ministry to the Poor, p. 84. 


Po RIGH PE CONDUCT OF LIFE 73 


58. Wealth Should be Applied to Works 
of Beneficence 


Let the Goodness which has prospered you teach 
you the spirit in which your wealth or competence 
should be used. What is the true use of prosperity? 
Not to minister to self-indulgence and ostentation; not 
to widen the space between you and the less prosper- 
ous; not to multiply signs of superior rank; not to 
raise us to an eminence, whence we may look down on 
the multitude as an inferior race; but to multiply our 
bonds of union with our fellow-creatures, to spread 
our sympathies far and wide, to give us nobler spheres 
of action, to make us more eminently the delegates 
and representatives of divine beneficence. What is 
the true use of increasing wealth in a city? It is not 
that more magnificent structures should be reared, but 
that our dwellings should be inhabited by a more 
intelligent and virtuous people; that institutions for 
awakening intellectual and moral life should be 
brought to bear on the whole community; that the 
individual may be carried forward to his true happt- 
ness and perfection; that society may be bound to- 
gether by stronger and purer bonds, and that the rigid 
laws of earthly governments may be more and more 
superseded by the law of love. Without such influ- 
ences, wealth is turned into a snare and curse. If, in- 
deed, our prosperity is to be used to spread luxurious 
and selfish modes of life, to form a frivolous class of 
fashion, to produce more striking contrasts between 
unfeeling opulence and abject penury, to corrupt man- 
ners and harden the heart, better were it for us that, 


74° THE RIGHT (CONDUCT OF LIPE 


by the just judgment of God, it should be sunk into 
the depths of the sea. It avails little that inter- 
course is more polished, and a new grace is thrown 
over life. The simple question is, Do we better under- 
stand and more strongly feel our relations to God and 
to our fellow-creatures? Without this, our boasted 
civilization is a whited sepulchre, fair to the eye, but 
inwardly “full of dead men’s bones and all unclean- 
ness.’ 


On the Ministry to the Poor, p. 87. 
59. God be Thanked for Books! 


It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse 
with superior minds, and these invaluable means of 
communication are in the reach of all. In the best 
books great men talk to us, give us their most precious 
thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be 
thanked for books. They are the voices of the dis- 
tant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual 
life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. 
They give to all who will faithfully use them the so- 
ciety, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest 
of our race. No matter how poor I am; no matter 
though the prosperous of my own time will not enter 
my obscure dwelling. If the sacred writers will enter 
and take up their abode under my roof; if Milton will 
cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and 
Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination 
and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to 
enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine 
for want of intellectual companionship, and I may 
become a cultivated man though excluded from what 


THE RIGHT CONDUCT OF LIFE 75 


is called the best society in the place where I live. 

To make this means of culture effectual, a man 
must select good books, such as have been written by 
right-minded and strong-minded men, real thinkers, 
who, instead of diluting by repetition what others say, 
have something to say for themselves, and write to 
give relief to full, earnest souls; and these works must 
not be skimmed over for amusement, but read with 
fixed attention and a reverential love of truth... . 
I know how hard it is to some men, especially to 
those who spend much time in manual labor, to fix at- 
tention on books. Let them strive to overcome the 
difhculty by choosing subjects of deep interest, or by 
reading in company with those whom they love. 
Nothing can supply the place of books. They are 
cheering or soothing companions in solitude, illness, 
affliction. The wealth of both continents would not 
compensate for the good they impart. Let every 
man, if possible, gather some good books under his 
roof, and obtain access for himself and family to some 
social library. Almost any luxury should be sacri- 
ficed to this. 

Self-Culture, p. 23. 


60. Marriage is a Solemn and Holy 
Relation 


The indissolubleness of marriage should be dis- 
tinctly and seriously weighed by those who have to 
form this connection. Let not the most solemn en- 
gagement of life be an act of rashness and unreflecting 
passion. Let the heart take counsel of the under- 
standing. Let the future as well as the present be 


76 THE RIGHT CONDUCT OF LIFE 


brought into the account. Let not the eye or the 
imagination be trusted. Let the young man or the 
young woman inquire, Is this a friend with whom | 
would wish to spend, not only my youth, but my age, 
not only my health, but my sickness, on whom I can 
lean in my griefs, to whom I can confide my trials, to 
whom I am willing to resign my character,—who, if 
reverses should befall me, would help me to sustain 
hardship and distress, who will reciprocate my best 
feelings, who will walk with me to heaven? .. . 

The different qualities by which man and woman 
are distinguished and contrasted prepare them for a 
peculiarly tender and beneficial union,—prepare them 
to supply each other’s deficiencies, to perfect each 
other’s character, and to bear distinct, yet equally 
necessary, parts in that most important work of the 
present state, the support and rearing of a family. 
Marriage, then, ought to be regarded as instituted for 
a very noble end,—to awaken the heart, to exercise 
and strengthen its sensibilities and charities, to train it 
to the perfection of social virtue, to confer the highest 
enjoyments of friendship, to secure to each party the 
benefit of the other’s strength, intelligence, and virtues, 
and to unite both in forming useful and virtuous mem- 
bers for the community. 

This is the noblest use of the conjugal relation; and 
when marriage is thus employed, when it becomes a re- 
finer of our nature, uniting the mind with God, and 
elevating it to heaven,—when they who sustain it prove 
to each other sources and cherishers of virtuous senti- 
ment, and see in their present union a preparation for 
indissoluble friendship after death,—when marriage 


THE RIGHT CONDUCE OF LIFE 44 


assumes this high and holy character, it is a felicity al- 
most too pure for earth, it is a’ foretaste of the attach- 
ments of a better world. 


Lifer i. 327. 


61. The Sanctuary of Home 


The domestic relations precede, and, in our present 
existence, are worth more than all our other social 
ties. They give the first throb to the heart, and un- 
seal the deep fountains of its love. Home is the 
chief school of human virtue. Its responsibilities, 
Joys, sorrows, smiles, tears, hopes, and solicitudes, 
form the chief interests of human life. Go where a 
man may, home is the centre to which his heart turns. 
The thought of his home nerves his arm and lightens 
his toil. For that his heart yearns, when he is far 
off. ‘There he garners up his best treasures. God has 
ordained for all men alike the highest earthly happi- 
ness, In providing for all the sanctuary of home. Home 
is to be a nursery of Christians; and what is the end 
of Christianity, but to awaken in all souls the princi- 
ples of universal justice and universal charity? At 
home we are to learn to love our neighbor, our enemy, 
the stranger, the poor, the oppressed. If home do 
not train us to this, then it is woefully perverted. If 
home counteract and quench the spirit of Christianity, 
then we must remember the divine Teacher, who com- 
mands us to forsake father and mother, brother and 
sister, wife and child, for his sake, and for the sake 
of his truth. If the walls of home are the bulwarks 
of a narrow, clannish love, through which the cry of 
human miseries and wrongs cannot penetrate, then it 


*8 THE RIGHT CONDUCT, OF EIBE 


is mockery to talk of their sacredness. Domestic life 
is at present too much in hostility to the spirit of 
Christ. A family should be a community of dear 
friends, strengthening one another for the service of 
their fellow-creatures. Can we give the name of 
Christian to most of our families? 


On Slavery, p. 711, on Emancipation, p. 844. 


THE USES OF PRAYER 
62. The True Spirit and Uses of Prayer 


Prayer gives intensity to the consciousness of our 
connection with God,—lifts us out of our narrowness 
into communion with the Infinite,—teaches us to re- 
gard our interests as embraced within the immense 
designs of Providence,—opens to us a view of our 
relations to the universe and all spirits. We come to 
him who has the well-being of all creatures in his con- 
trol, in whom the whole good of the universe is concen- 
trated. Can we approach him absorbed in selfish 
wants? Wecome to the Spiritual Father, who desires 
our perfection, whose law of rectitude is immutable, 
whose will of goodness is supreme, who abhors evil. 
Must not every desire become purified in such a pres- 
ence? God always regards us in our connections with 
other beings; every gift bestowed upon us, or with- 
held from us, will affect them as well as us. Should 
not our petition be, then, to receive only what the 
Universal Father sees to be best for all as for our- 
selves? ‘The true spirit of prayer is a submission of 
ourselves to the good of the whole, to the purposes of 
Infinite Love. 

Life, p. 648. 


63. A Prayer of Adoration and Communion 


O God! the Centre of all spirits, the Everlasting 
79 . 


80 THE USES OF PRAYER 


Goodness, we come to thee. Thou art the happiness 
of heaven; and thy presence, felt by the soul that com- 
munes with thee, is the highest good. Ignorant of thee, 
we know nothing aright; wandering from thee, we lose 
all light and peace; forgetting thee, we turn our minds 
from the noblest object of thought; and without love 
to thee, we are separated from infinite loveliness, and 
from the only substantial and, sufficient source of joy. 
Thou hast an inexhaustible fulness of life; and thine 
unceasing communications take nothing from thy 
power to bless. ‘Thou art infinitely better than all thy 
gifts, and through all we desire to rise to thee. 

We thank thee for the proofs thou givest of thy 
essential, pure, and perfect benignity, so that through 
all clouds and darkness we can see a gracious Father. 
In this world of shadows, this fleeting tide of things, 
this life of dreams, we rejoice that there is a Reality, 
sure, unchanging, in which we may find rest; that there 
is a Power which can cleanse us from all sin, raise us 
to all virtue and happiness, and give us endless growth. 
How great is our privilege, that we have such an ob- 
ject for our hope and trust,—that our souls may con- 
template infinite loveliness, greatness, goodness,— 
that we may at all times commune with the Best of 
Beings ! 

For thy inviolable faithfulness, thy impartial justice, 
thy unerring wisdom, thy unfathomable counsels, thy 
unwearied care, thy tender mercy, thy resistless power, 
we adore thee. For the splendor spread over all thy 
works, and still more for the higher beauty of the 
soul, of which the brightness of creation is but the 
emblem and faint shadow, we thank thee. O, let thy 


THE USES OF PRAYER 81 


love affect our hearts, let us feel its reality, constancy, 
tenderness! To thee we owe all. Thine is the health 
of our bodies, the light of our minds, the warmth of 
affection, the guiding voice of conscience. Whatever 
knowledge of virtuous impressions we have derived 
from the society of friends, the conversation of the 
wise and good, the care of instructors, the researches 
of past ages, we desire to trace gratefully to thee. 
We rejoice that we depend on thee, the Father of 
Spirits, whose requisitions are so reasonable, whose 
government is so mild, whose influences are so enno- 
bling. 
UGE CFED. LOZ. 


64. “‘Be Thou the Centre, Life, and Sovereign 
of Our Souls” 


Communicate and quicken spiritual life. May our 
souls be warm with life. Save us from an inanimate 
and sluggish state. Teach us thy purity, how great thy 
abhorrence of evil, how irreconcilable thy hatred of it, 
and may we all partake of the same abhorrence of sin. 
Increase our sensibility to evil; may we shun every ap- 
pearance of it and repel the first temptation; and in 
a world where example is so corrupt, we beseech thee 
to arm us with a holy fortitude. 

Inspire us with a generous love of virtue, of recti- 
tude, of holiness. May we prefer it even to life. 
Animate us to adhere to good in every danger. May 
nothing on earth move us or shake our steadfastness. 
Increase our sensibility to good; may we see more and 
more its loveliness and beauty. 

Animate us to cheerfulness. May we have a joyful 


82 THE USES OF PRAYER 


sense of our blessings, learn to look on the bright cir- 
cumstances of our lot, and maintain a perpetual con- 
tentedness under thy allotments. Fortify our minds 
against disappointment and calamity. Preserve us 
from despondency, from yielding to dejection. Teach 
us that no evil is intolerable but a guilty conscience, 
and that nothing can hurt us, if with true loyalty of 
affection we keep thy commandments and take refuge 
in thee. 

May every day add brightness and energy to our 
conceptions of thy lovely and glorious character. 
Give us a deeper sense of thy presence, and instruct 
us to nourish our devoutness by every scene of nature 
and every event of providence. Assist us to conse- 
crate our whole being and existence to thee, our under- 
standings to the knowledge of thy character, our 
hearts to the veneration and love of thy perfections, 
our wills to the choice of thy commands, our active 
energies to the accomplishment of thy purposes, our 
lives to thy glory, and every power to the imitation of 
thy goodness. Be thou the centre, life, and sovereign 
of our souls. 


LAE PNroo: 
65. A Prayer for the Brotherhood of Man 


Christianity has no plainer purpose than to unite all 
men as brethren, to make man unutterably dear to 
man, to pour contempt on outward distinctions, to raise 
the fallen, to league all in efforts for the elevation of 
all. Under its influence, the differences of nations 
and rank are softening. To the establishment of a 
fraternal relation among men, the science, literature, 


THE USES OF PRAYER 83 


commerce, education of the Christian world are tend- 
ing. A new comprehension of the Christian spirit,— 
a new reverence for humanity, a new feeling of 
brotherhood, and of all men’s relation to the common 
Father,—this is among the signs of our times. We 
see it; do we not feel it? Before this all oppressions 
are to fall. Society, silently pervaded by this, is to 
change its aspect of universal warfare for peace. 
The power of selfishness, all-grasping and seemingly 
invincible, is to yield to this diviner energy. ‘The song 
of angels, “On earth peace,” will not always sound as 
fiction. O come, thou kingdom of heaven, for which 
we daily pray! Come, Friend and Saviour of the 
race, who didst shed thy blood on the cross to recon- 
cile man to man, and earth to heaven! Come, ye pre- 
dicted ages of righteousness and love, for which the 
faithful have so long yearned! Come, Father 
Almighty, and crown with thine omnipotence the hum- 
ble strivings of thy children to subvert oppression and 
wrong, to spread light and freedom, peace and joy, 
the truth and spirit of thy Son, through the whole 
earth ! 

On the Annexation of Texas, p. 767, on Emancipa- 


tion, p. 924. 


THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 


66. The Demands of a Progressive Age on 
the Ministry 


The age in which we live demands not only an en- 
lightened but an earnest ministry, for it is an age of 
earnestness and excitement. Men feel and think at 
present with more energy than formerly. ‘There is 
more of interest and fervor. We learn now from ex- 
perience what might have been inferred from the pur- 
poses of our Creator, that civilization and refinement 
are not, as has been sometimes thought, inconsistent 
with sensibility; that the intellect may grow without 
exhausting or overshadowing the heart. The human 
mind was never more in earnest than at the present 
moment. ‘The political revolutions which form such 
broad features and distinctions of our age have sprung 
from a new and deep working in the human soul. 
Men have caught glimpses, however indistinct, of the 
worth, dignity, rights, and great interests of their 
nature; and a thirst for untried good and impatience 
of long endured wrongs have broken out wildly, like 
the fires of Etna, and shaken and convulsed the earth. 
It 1s impossible not to discern this increased fervor 
of mind in every department of life. A new spirit of 


improvement is abroad. ‘The imagination can no 
84 


THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 8 5 


longer be confined to the acquisitions of past ages, but 
is kindling the passions by vague but noble ideas of 
blessings never yet attained. Miultitudes, unwilling 
to wait the slow pace of that great innovator, Time, 
are taking the work of reform into their own hands. 
Accordingly, the reverence for antiquity and for age- 
hallowed establishments, and the passion for change 
and amelioration, are now arrayed against each other 
in open hostility, and all great questions affecting hu- 
man happiness are debated with the eagerness of 
party. 
Demands of the Age on the Ministry, p. 272. 


67. Moral Courage and Candor must Mark 
the Effective Minister 


I have said, preach plainly and preach earnestly; I 
now say, preach with moral courage. Fear no man, 
high or low, rich or poor, taught or untaught. Honor 
all men; love all men; but fear none. Speak what you 
account great truths frankly, strongly, boldly. Do 
not spoil them of life to avoid offence. Do not seek 
to propitiate passion and prejudice by compromise and 
concession. Beware of the sophistry which reconciles 
the conscience to the suppression, or vague, lifeless 
utterance of unpopular truth. Do not wink at wrong 
deeds or unholy prejudices, because sheltered by cus- 
tom or respected names. Let your words breathe a 
heroic valor. You are bound indeed to listen candidly 
and respectfully to whatever objections may be urged 
against your views of truth and duty. You must also 
take heed lest you baptize your rash, crude notions, 
your hereditary or sectarian opinions, with the name 


86 THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 


of Christian doctrine. But having deliberately, con- 
scientiously sought the truth, abide by your conviction 
at all hazards. Never shrink from speaking your 
mind through dread of reproach. Wait not to be 
backed by numbers. Wait not till you are sure of an 
echo from acrowd. ‘The fewer the voices on the side 
of truth, the more distinct and strong must be your 
own. Put faith in truth as mightier than error, preju- 
dice, or passion, and be ready to take a place among its 
martyrs. Feel that truth is not a local, temporary 
influence, but immutable, everlasting, the same in all 
worlds, one with God, and armed with his omnipo- 
tence. Courage even on the side of error is power. 
How must it prove on the side of truth! A minister 
speaking not from selfish calculation, but giving 
out his mind in godly sincerity, uttering his convictions 
in natural tones, and always faithful to the light which 
he has received, however he may give occasional of- 
fence, will not speak in vain; he will have an ally in 
the moral sense, the principle of justice, the reverence 
for virtue, which is never wholly extinguished in the 
human soul. 

You are peculiarly called to cherish moral courage, 
because it is not the virtue of our times and country, 
and because ministers are especially tempted to moral 
weakness. The Protestant minister, mixing freely 
with society, sustaining all its relations, and depend- 
ing on opinion for bread, has strong inducements to 
make a compromise with the world. Is there not 
reason to fear that, under these influences, religion 
and the world often shake hands? Is there not a 
secret understanding that the ministry, while it con- 


THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 87 


demns sin in the mass, must touch gently the prejudices, 
wrongs, and abuses which the community has taken 
under its wing? Is not preaching often disarmed by 
this silent, almost unconscious, concession to the 
world? Whether a ministry sustained as it now is 
can be morally free, is a problem yet to be solved. If 
not, the minister must now, as of old, leave all for 
Christ, looking solely for aid to those, however few 
or poor, who share his own deep interest in the Chris- 
tian cause. Better earn your bread with the sweat 
of your brow, than part with moral freedom. 


Ordination Sermon for Rev. John 8. Dwight, p. 288. 


68. The Christian Ministry Requires a Spirit 
of Self-Sacrifice 


The spirit of self-sacrifice,—the spirit of martyr- 
dom. ‘This was the perfection of Christ, and it is the 
noblest inspiration which his followers derive from 
him. Say not that this is a height to which the gener- 
ality of ministers must not be expected to rise. This 
spirit is of more universal obligation than many 
imagine. It enters into all the virtues which deeply 
interest us. In truth, there is no thorough virtue with- 
out it. Who is the upright man? He who would 
rather die than defraud. Who the good parent? 
He to whom his children are dearer than life. Who 
the good patriot? He who counts not life dear in 
his country’s cause. Who the philanthropist? He 
who forgets himself in an absorbing zeal for the miti- 
gation of human suffering,—for the freedom, virtue, 
and illumination of men. It is not Christianity alone 
which has taught self-sacrifice. Conscience and the 


88 THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 


divinity within us have in all ages borne testimony to its 

loveliness and grandeur, and history borrows from it 

her chief splendors. But Christ on his cross has taught 

it with a perfection unknown before, and his glory 

consists in the power with which he breathes it. Into 

this spirit Christ’s meanest disciple is expected to drink. 
The Christian Ministry, p. 267. 


69. Better the Romance of Progress than the 
Tameness of Timidity in a Minister 


Am I told that “romantic expectations of great 
changes in society will do more harm than good; that 
the world will move along in its present course, let the 
ministry do what it may; that we must take the present 
state as God has made it, and not waste our strength 
in useless lamentation for incurable evils’? I hold 
this language, though it takes the name of philosophy, 
to be wholly unwarranted by experience and revelation. 

If there be one striking feature in human nature, 
it is its susceptibleness of improvement. . . . Have 
we not pledges in man’s admiration of disinterested, 
heroic love; in his power of conceiving and thirsting 
for unattained heights of excellence; and in the splen- 
dor and sublimity of virtue already manifested in not 
a few who “‘shine as lights” in the darkness of past 
ages, that man was created for perpetual moral and 
religious progress? ‘True, the minister should not 
yield himself to romantic anticipations; for disappoint- 
ment may deject him. Let him not expect to break in 
a moment chains of habit which years have riveted, or 
to bring back to immediate intimacy with God souls 
which have wandered long and far from him. ‘This 


THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 89 


is romance; but there is something to be dreaded by 
the minister more than this,—I mean that frigid tame- 
ness of mind, too common in Christian teachers, which 
confounds the actual and the possible; which cannot 
burst the shackles of custom; which never kindles at 
the thought of great improvements of human nature; 
which is satisfied if religion receive an outward respect, 
and never dreams of enthroning it in men’s souls; 
which looks on the strongholds of sin with despair; 
which utters by rote the solemn and magnificent lan- 
guage of the gospel, without expecting it to “work 
mightily”; which sees in the ministry a part of the 
mechanism of society, a useful guardian of public 
order, but never suspects the powers with which it is 
armed by Christianity. 
The Demands of the Age on the Minister, p. 277. 


70. The Christian Minister a Moral Revolutionist 


There is no romance in a minister’s proposing and 
hoping to forward a great moral revolution on the 
earth; for the religion which he is appointed to preach 
was intended and is adapted to work deeply and 
widely, and to change the face of society. Christian- 
ity was not ushered into the world with such a stupen- 
dous preparation; it was not foreshown through so 
many ages by enraptured prophets; it was not pro- 
claimed so joyfully by the songs of angels; it was not 
preached by such holy lips, and sealed by such precious 
blood, to be only a pageant, a form, a sound, a show. 
Oh, no. It has come from heaven, with heaven’s 
life and power,—come to ‘‘make all things new,’’ to 
make ‘“‘the wilderness glad and the desert blossom as 


gO THE LIBERAL MINISTRY 


the rose,” to break the stony heart, to set free the 
guilt-burdened and earth-bound spirit, and to “present 
it faultless before God’s glory with exceeding joy.” 
With courage and hope becoming such a religion, let 
the minister bring to his work the concentrated powers 
of intellect and affection, and God, in whose cause he 
labors, will accompany and crown the labor with an 
almighty blessing. 
Demands of the Age on the Ministry p. 277. 


71. Let the Minister Lead a Life of Faith and Hope 


Live ‘avlife. of faith) and hopes Believe ineGodss 
great purposes towards the human race. Believe in 
the mighty power of truth and love. Believe in the 
omnipotence of Christianity. Believe that Christ 
lived and died to breathe into his church and into 
society a diviner spirit than now exists. Believe in 
the capacities and greatness of human nature. Be- 
lieve that the celestial virtue, revealed in the life and 
teaching of Jesus Christ, is not a bright vision for bar- 
ren admiration, but is to become a reality in your own 
and others’ souls. Carry to your work a trustful 
spirit. Do not waste your breath in wailing over 
the times. Strive to make them better. Do not be 
disheartened by evils. Feel through your whole soul 
that evil is not the mightiest power in the universe,— 
that it is permitted only to call forth the energy of 
love, wisdom, persuasion, and prayer for its removal. 
Settle it in your mind that a minister can never speak 
an effectual word without faith. Be strong in the 
Lord and the power of his might. 

Letter on Catholicism p. 477. 


SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 


72. Environment Teaches the Child; Parents and 


Teachers may Determine the Environment 


The child is not put into the hands of parents alone. 
It is not born to hear but a few voices. It is brought 
at birth into a vast, we may say an infinite, school. 
The universe is charged with the office of its education. 
Innumerable voices come to it from all that it meets, 
sees, feels. It is not confined to a few books anxiously 
sclectcdm ton it by parental cate.’ Nature, society, 
experience, are volumes opened everywhere and per- 
petually before its eyes. It takes lessons from every 
object within the sphere of its senses and its activity, 
from the sun and stars, from the flowers of spring and 
the fruits of autumn, from every associate, from every 
smiling and frowning countenance, from the pursuits, 
trades, professions of the community in which it moves, 
from its plays, friendships, and dislikes, from the 
varieties of human character, and from the conse- 
quences of its actions. | 

Still, the influence of parents and teachers is great. 
On them it very much depends whether the circum- 
stances which surround the child shall operate to his 
good. They must help him to read, interpret, and use 
wisely the great volumes of nature, society, and expe- 
rience. They must fix his volatile glance, arrest his 

gI 


92 SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 


precipitate judgment, guide his observation, teach 
him to link together cause and effect in the outward 
world, and turn his thoughts inward on his own more 
mysterious nature. ‘The young, left to the education 
of circumstances,—left without teaching, guidance, 
restraint,—will, in all probability, grow up ignorant, 
torpid in intellect, strangers to their own powers, and 
slaves to their passions. 


On Education, p. 117. 


73. The Office of the Teacher is the 
Noblest on Earth 


We have spoken of the office of the education of 
human beings as the noblest on earth, and have spoken 
deliberately. It is more important than that of the 
statesman. ‘[he statesman may set fences round our 
property and dwellings; but how much more are we 
indebted to him who calls forth the powers and afiec- 
tions of those for whom our property is earned, and 
our dwellings are reared, and who renders our chil- 
dren objects of increasing love and respect! We go 
farther. We maintain that higher ability is required 
for the ofhiice of an educator of the young than for that 
of a statesman. The highest ability is that which 
penetrates farthest into human nature, comprehends 
the mind in all its capacities, traces out the laws of 
thought and moral action, understands the perfection 
of human nature and how it may be approached, under- 
stands the springs, motives, applications, by which the 
child is to be roused to the most vigorous and harmo- 
nious action of all its faculties, understands its perils, 


SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 93 


and knows how to blend and modify the influences 
which outward circumstances exert on the youthful 
mind. The speculations of statesman are shallow 
compared with these. It is the chief function of the 
statesman to watch over the outward interests of a 
people,—that of the educator to quicken its soul. 
The statesman must study and manage the passions 
and prejudices of the community; the educator must 
study the essential, the deepest, the loftiest principles 
of human nature. ‘The statesman works with coarse 
instruments for coarse ends; the educator is to work 
by the most refined influences on that delicate, ethereal 
essence, the immortal soul. 
On Education, p. 119. 


74. Economy in Education is Perilous 


to the Child 


There is no office higher than that of a teacher of 
youth, for there is nothing on earth so precious as the 
mind, soul, character of the child. No office should 
be regarded with greater respect. The first minds in 
the community should be encouraged to assume it. 
Parents should do all but impoverish themselves to 
induce such to become the guardians and guides of 
their children. To this good, all their show and 
luxury should be sacrificed. Here they should be 
lavish, whilst they straiten themselves in every thing 
else. They should wear the cheapest clothes, live on 
the plainest food, if they can in no other way secure 
to their families the best instruction. They should 
have no anxiety to accumulate property for their chil- 
dren, provided they can place them under influences 


94 SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 


which will awaken their faculties, inspire them with 
pure and high principles, and fit them to bear a manly, 
useful, and honorable part in the world. No language 
can express the cruelty or folly of that economy which, 
to leave a fortune to a child, starves his intellect, im- 
poverishes his heart. ‘There should be no economy 
in education. Money should never be weighed against 
the soul of a child. It should be poured out like water 
for the child’s intellectual and moral life. 

No profession should receive so liberal remunera- 
tion. We need not say how far the community falls 
short of this estimate of the teacher’s office. Very 
many send their children to school, and seldom or 
never see the instructor who is operating daily and 
deeply on their minds and characters. With a blind 
confidence, perhaps they do not ask how that work is 
advancing on which the dearest interests of the family 
depend. Perhaps they put the children under the 
daily control of one with whom they do not care to 
associate. Perhaps, were they told what they ought 
to pay for teaching, they would stare as if a project 
for robbing them were on foot, or would suspect the 
sanity of the friend who should counsel them to throw 
away so much money in purchasing that cheapest of 
all articles, that drug in every market, instruction for 
their children. 

On Education, p. 118. 


75. In Preaching Religion, Present it Cheerfully 
but as a Challenge to Heroism 


Carry a cheerful spirit into religious teaching. Do 
not merely speak of Christianity as the only fountain 


SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 95 


of happiness. Let your tones and words bear witness 
to its benignant, cheering influence. Youth is the age 
of joy and hope, and nothing repels it more than 
gloom. Do not array religion in terror. Do not 
make God a painful thought by speaking of him as 
present only to see and punish sin. Speak of his 
fatherly interest in the young with a warm heart and 
a beaming eye, and encourage their filial approach 
and prayers. On this part, however, you must be- 
ware of sacrificing truth to the desire of winning your 
pupil. Truth, truth in her severest as well as mildest 
forms, must be placed before the young. Do not, to 
attract them to duty, represent it as a smooth and 
flowery path. Do not tell them that they can become 
good, excellent, generous, holy, without effort and 
pain. Teach them that the sacrifice of self-will, of 
private interest, and pleasure, to others’ rights and 
happiness, to the dictates of conscience, to the will of 
God, is the very essence of piety and goodness. But 
at the same time teach them that there is a pure, calm 
joy, an inward peace, in surrendering every thing to 
duty, which can be found in no selfish success. Help 
them to sympathize with the toils, pains, sacrifices of 
the philanthropist, the martyr, the patriot, and inspire 
contempt of fear and peril in adhering to truth and 
God. 
The Sunday School, p. 457. 


THE FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH 
76. The True Christian Unity 


By his Church our Saviour does not mean a party, 
bearing the name of a human leader, distinguished 
by a form or an opinion, and, on the ground of this 
distinction, denying the name or character of Christians 
to all but themselves. He means by it the body of 
his friends and followers, who truly imbibe his spirit, 
no matter by what name they are called, in what 
house they worship, by what peculiarities of mode and 
opinion they are distinguished, under what sky they 
live, or what language they speak. ‘These are the 
true church,—men made better, made holy, virtuous, 
by his religionm—men who, hoping in his promises, 
keep his commands. 

Ever since Christ’s church was established such a 
unity has existed, such characters have been formed by 
the gospel; and this influence it will exert through all 
ages. As we have said, we have reason to suppose, 
from what has been experienced, that great changes 
will take place in the present state of Christianity; and 
the time is, perhaps, coming, when all our present sects 
will live only in history. But the influences of the 
gospel will not therefore cease; the church will not 
die with the sects into which it is broken. On the 
contrary, we may hope that the vine of God will flour- 


ish more, when these branches are lopped off which 
96 


FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH — 97 


exhaust its strength and bear little fruit. Men will 
then learn that Christianity is designed for practice, 
and not for contention; ceasing to censure others, they 
will aim to reform themselves. The simple gospel, 
divested of human addition, no longer disfigured by 
absurd explanation, will be the centre and bond of 
union to the world. The name of Christian will ab- 
sorb all other names; and the spirit of love to God and 
man will take the place of unhallowed zeal and bitter 
contention. Human churches, human establishments, 
—the effects and monuments of folly and ambition,— 
will fall. But the church of Christ—which is another 
name for piety, goodness, righteousness, peace, and 
love—shall endure forever... . 


Life, p. 170. 


77. The Covenant of the Universal Church 
is Charity and Beneficence 


We have grown up under different influences. We 
bear different names. But if we purpose solemnly to 
do God’s will, and are following the precepts and 
example of Christ, we are one church, and let nothing 
divide us. Diversities of opinion may incline us to 
worship under different roofs; or diversities of tastes 
or habit, to worship with different forms. But these 
varieties are not schisms; they do not break the unity 
of Christ’s church. We may still honor and love and 
rejoice in one another’s spiritual life and progress as 
truly as if we were cast into one and the same un- 
yielding form. God loves variety in nature and in 
the human soul, nor does he reject it in Christian wor- 
ship. In many great truths, in those which are most 


98 FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH 


quickening, purifying, and consoling, we all, I hope, 
agree. There is, too, a common ground of practice, 
aloof from all controversy, on which we may all meet. 
We may all unite hearts and hands in doing good, in 
fulfilling God’s purposes of love towards our race, in 
toiling and suffering for the cause of humanity, in 
spreading intelligence, freedom, and virtue, in making 
God known for the reverence, love, and imitation of 
his creatures, in resisting the abuses and corruptions 
of past ages, in exploring and drying up the sources 
of poverty, in rescuing the fallen from intemperance, 
in succoring the orphan and widow, in enlightening 
and elevating the depressed portions of the community, 
in breaking the yoke of the oppressed and enslaved, in 
exposing and withstanding the spirit and horrors of 
war, in sending God’s word to the ends of the earth, 
in redeeming the world from sin and woe. ‘The angels 
and pure spirits who visit our earth come not to join 
a sect, but to do good to all. May this universal 
charity descend on us, and possess our hearts! may our 
narrowness, exclusiveness, and bigotry melt away un- 
der this mild, celestial fire! Thus we shall not only 
join ourselves to Christ’s universal church on earth, 
but to the invisible church, to the innumerable com- 
pany of the just made perfect, in the mansions of ever- 
lasting purity and peace. 
The Church, p. 444. 


78. Virtue is the Bond of the Universal Church 


Do not tell me that I surrender myself to a fiction of 
imagination, when I say that distant Christians, that 
all Christians and myself, form one body, one church, 


PREE AN DYUNIVERSAG CHURCH 7:99 


just as far as a common love and piety possess our 
hearts. Nothing is more real than this spiritual union. 
There is one grand, all-comprehending church. Who 
shall sunder me from such men as Fénélon, and Pascal, 
and Borromeo, from Archbishop Leighton, Jeremy 
Taylor, and John Howard? Who can rupture the 
spiritual bond between these men and myself? Do I 
not hold them dear? Does not their spirit, flowing 
out through their writings and lives, penetrate my 
soul? Are they not a portion of my being? Am I 
not a different man from what I should have been, had 
not these and other like spirits acted on mine? And 
is 1t in the power of synod, or conclave, or of all the 
ecclesiastical combinations on earth, to part me from 
them? Iam bound to them by thought and affection; 
and can these be suppressed by the bull of a pope or 
the excommunication of a council? The soul breaks 
scornfully these barriers, these webs of spiders, and 
joins itself to the great and good; and if it possess 
their spirit, will the great and good, living or dead, 
cast it off because it has not enrolled itself in this or 
another sect? A pure mind is free of the universe. 
It belongs to the church, the family of the pure, in all 
worlds. Virtue is no local thing. It is not honorable 
because born in this community or that, but for its own 
independent, everlasting beauty. This is the bond 
of the universal church. No man can be excommuni- 
cated from it but by himself, by the death of goodness 
in his own breast. All sentences of exclusion are vain, 
if he do not dissolve the tie of purity which binds him 
to all holy souls. 
The Church, p. 430. 


100 = FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH 


79. The History of the Intolerance of Sects 
Awakens Grief, Shame, and 
Pity 

There is no portion of human history more hum- 
bling than that of sects. When I meditate on the 
grand, moral, spiritual purpose of Christianity, in 
which all its glory consists; when I consider how plainly 
Christianity attaches importance to nothing but to the 
moral excellence, the disinterested, divine virtue, which 
was embodied in the teaching and life of its Founder; 
and when from this position I look down on the sects 
which have figured and now figure in the church; when 
I see them making such a stir about matters generally 
so unessential; when I see them seizing on a disputed 
and disputable doctrine, making it a watchword, a test 
of God’s favor, a bond of communion, a ground of 
self-complacency, a badge of peculiar holiness, a war- 
rant for condemning its rejectors, however imbued 
with the spirit of Christ; when I see them overlooking 
the weightier matters of the law, and laying infinite 
stress here on a bishop and prayer-book, there on the 
quantity of water applied in baptism, and there on 
some dark solution of an incomprehensible article of 
faith; when I see the mock dignity of their exclusive 
claims to truth, to churchship, to the promises of 
God’s word; when I hear the mimic thunderbolts of 
denunciation and excommunication which they delight 
to hurl; when I consider how their deep theology, in 
proportion as it is examined, evaporates into words, 
how many opposite and extravagant notions are 
covered by the same broad shield of mystery and 


FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH 101 


tradition, and how commonly the persuasion of infal- 
libility is proportioned to the absurdity of the creed; 
—when I consider these things, and other matters of 
like import, I am lost in amazement at the amount of 
arrogant folly, of self-complacent intolerance, of al- 
most incredible blindness to the end and essence of 
Christianity, which the history of sects reveals. I 
have, indeed, profound respect for individuals in all 
communions of Christians. But on sects, and on the 
spirit of sects, I must be allowed to look with grief, 
shame, and pity. 
Letter on Catholicism, p. 476. 


80. ds Members of One Vast Spiritual Com- 


munity, We Should Shun Sectarianism 


We must shun the spirit of sectarianism as from 
hell. We must shudder at the thought of shutting up 
God in any denomination. We must. think no man 
the better for belonging to our communion; no man 
the worse for belonging to another. We must look with 
undiminished joy on goodness, though it shine forth 
from the most adverse sect. Christ’s spirit must be 
equally dear and honored, no matter where manifested. 
To confine God’s love or his good Spirit to any party, 
sect, or name, is to sin against the fundamental law 
of the kingdom of God, to break that living bond with 
Christ’s universal church which is one of our chief 
helps to perfection. What I wish is, that we should 
learn to regard ourselves as members of a vast spirit- 
ual community, as joint-heirs and fellow-worshippers 
with the goodly company of Christian heroes who have 


102 FREE AND;UNIVERSAL CHURCH 


gone before us, instead of immuring ourselves in par- 
ticular) churches: Our? nature delights) anaes 
consciousness of vast connection. This tendency mani- 
fests itself in the patriotic sentiment, and in the 
passionate clinging of men to a great religious de- 
nomination. Its true and noblest gratification is 
found in the deep feeling of a vital, everlasting connec- 
tion with the universal church, with the innumerable 
multitude of the holy on earth and in heaven. 


The Church, pp. 437, 438. 


81. Christian Truth 1s Infinite, Creeds 
Cannot Contain It 


I cannot but look on human creeds with feelings 
approaching contempt. When I bring them into con- 
trast with the New Testament, into what insignificance 
do they sink! What are they? Skeletons, freezing 
abstractions, metaphysical expressions of unintelligible 
dogmas; and these I am to regard as the expositions 
of the fresh, living, infinite truth which came from 
Jesus! I might with equal propriety be required to 
hear and receive the lispings of infancy as the expres- 
sions of wisdom. Creeds are to the Scriptures what 
rush-lights are to the sun. ‘The creed-maker defines 
Jesus in half a dozen lines, perhaps in metaphysical 
terms, and calls me to assent to this account of my 
Saviour. I learn less of Christ by this process than 
I should learn of the sun by being told that this 
glorious luminary is a circle about a foot in diameter. 
There is but one way of knowing Christ. We must 
place ourselves near him, see him, hear him, follow 
him from his cross to the heavens, sympathize with 


FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH § 103 


him and obey him, and thus catch clear and bright 
glimpses of his divine glory. 

Christian truth is infinite. Who can think of shut- 
fing it up in a few lines of an abstract creed? You 
might as well compress the boundless atmosphere, the 
fire, the all-pervading light, the free winds of the uni- 
verse, into separate parcels, and weigh and label them, 
as break up Christianity into a few propositions. 
Christianity is freer, more illimitable, than the light 
or the winds. It is too mighty to be bound down by 
man’s puny hands. It is a spirit rather than a rigid 
doctrine,—the spirit of boundless love. ‘The infinite 
cannot be defined and measured out like a human manu- 
facture wl tunasebeen=tie tault ofeall sectsathatathey 
have been too anxious to define their religion. ‘They 
have labored to circumscribe the infinite. Christianity, 
as it exists in the mind of the true disciple, is not made 
up of fragments, of separate ideas which he can ex- 
press in detached propositions. It is a vast and ever- 
unfolding whole, pervaded by one spirit, each precept 
and doctrine deriving its vitality from its union with 
all. 

Letter on Creeds, p. 487. 


82. The Universality of the Christian Gospel 


When I examine the doctrines, precepts, and spirit 
of Christianity, I discover, in them all, this character 
of universality. I discover nothing narrow, tem- 
porary, local. The gospel bears the stamp of no 
particular age or country. It does not concern itself 
with the perishable interests of communities or indi- 
viduals; but appeals to the spiritual, immortal, un- 


104 FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH 


bounded principle in human nature. Its aim is to 
direct the mind to the Infinite Being, and to an infinite 
good. It is not made up, like other religions, of pre- 
cise forms and details; but it inculcates immutable and 
all-comprehending principles of duty, leaving every 
man to apply them for himself to the endless variety 
of human conditions. It inculcates philanthropy with- 
out exceptions or bounds,—a love to man as man, a 
love founded on that immortal nature of which all 
men partake, and which binds us to recognize in each 
a child of God and a brother. The spirit of bigotry, 
which confines its charity to a sect, and the spirit of 
aristocracy, which looks on the multitude as an inferior 
race, are alike rebuked by Christianity; which, eigh- 
teen hundred years ago, in a narrow and superstitious 
age, taught, what the present age is beginning to under- 
stand, that all men are essentially equal, and that all 
are to be honored, because made for immortality and 
endued with capacities of ceaseless improvement. ‘The 
more I examine Christianity, the more I am struck 
with its universality. I see in it a religion made for 
all regions and all times, for all classes and all stages 
of society. It is fitted, not to the Asiatic or the Euro- 
pean, but to the essential principles of human nature, 
—to man under the tropical or polar skies, to all 
descriptions of intellect and condition. It speaks a 
language which all men need and all can understand; 
enjoins a virtue which is man’s happiness and glory 
in every age and clime; and ministers consolations and 
hopes which answer to man’s universal lot,—to the 
sufferings, the fear, and the self-rebuke which cleave 
to our nature in every outward change. I see in it 


FREE AND UNIVERSAL CHURCH 105 


the light, not of one nation, but of the world; and a 
light reaching beyond the world, beyond time, to 
higher modes of existence and to an interminable 
futurity. Other religions have been intended to meet 
the exigencies of particular countries or times, and 
therefore society in its progress has outgrown them; 
but Christianity meets more and more the wants of 
the soul in proportion to the advancement of our race, 
and thus proves itself to be eternal truth. 

Christianity a Rational Religion, p. 242. 


ANTICIPATIONS OF THE FUTURE IGE 


83. Heaven is the Freed and Sanctifiled Mind 
and the Fellowship Thereof 


The most exalted idea we can form of the future 
state is that it brings and joins us to God. But is not 
approach to this great Being begun on earth? An- 
other delightful view of heaven is that it unites us 
with the good and great of our own race, and even 
with higher orders of beings. But this union is one 
of spirit, not of mere place; it is accordance of thought 
and feeling, not an outward relation; and does not 
this harmony begin even now? and is not virtuous 
friendship on earth essentially the pleasure which we 
hope hereafter? What place would be drearier than 
the future mansions of Christ to one who should want 
sympathy with their inhabitants, who could not under- 
stand their language, who would feel himself a for- 
eigner there, who would be taught, by the joys which 
he could not partake, his own loneliness and desola- 
tion’ te l heses views, sl aknow, are. oftenecivensamaEn 
greater or less distinctness; but they seem to me not 
to have brought home to men the truth, that the 
fountain of happiness must be in our own souls. 
Gross ideas of futurity still prevail. I should not be 
surprised if to some among us the chief idea of heaven 
was that of a splendor, a radiance, like that which 


Christ wore on the Mount of Transfiguration. Let 
106 


ANTICIPATIONS OF FUTURE LIFE 107 


us all consider—and it is a great truth—that heaven 
has no lustre surpassing that of intellectual and moral 
worth; and that, were the effulgence of the sun and 
stars concentrated in the Christian, even this would 
be darkness compared with the pure beamings of wis- 
dom, love, and power from his mind. Think not, 
then, that Christ has come to give heaven as some- 
thing distinct from virtue. Heaven is the freed and 
sanctified mind, enjoying God through accordance with 
his attributes, multiplying its bonds and sympathies 
with excellent beings, putting forth noble powers, and 
ministering, in union with the enlightened and holy, 
to the happiness and virtue of the universe. 


The Great Purpose of Christianity, p. 252. 


84. Heaven is the Rendezvous and Home 


of the Great and Good 


Were there a country on earth uniting all that 1s 
beautiful in nature, all that is great in virtue, genius, 
and the liberal arts, and numbering among its citizens 
the most illustrious patriots, poets, philosophers, 
philanthropists of our age, how eagerly should 
we cross the ocean to visit it! And how im- 
measurably greater is the attraction of heaven! 
There live the elder brethren of the creation, the sons 
of the morning, who sang for joy at the creation of 
our race; there the great and good of all ages and 
climes; the friends, benefactors, deliverers, ornaments 
of their race; the patriarch, prophet, apostle, and 
martyr; the true heroes of public, and still more of 
private, life; the father, mother, wife, husband, child, 
who, unrecorded by man, have walked before God in 


108 ANTICIPATIONS OF FUTURE LIFE 


the beauty of love and self-sacrificing virtue. ‘There 
are all who have built up in our hearts the power of 
goodness and truth, the writers from whose pages we 
have received the inspiration of pure and lofty senti- 
ments, the friends whose countenances have shed light 
through our dwellings, and peace and strength through 
our hearts. ‘There they are gathered together, safe 
from every storm, triumphant over evil; and they say 
to us, Come and join us in our everlasting blessedness; 
come and bear part in our song of praise; share our 
adoration, friendship, progress, and works of love. 
They say to us, Cherish now in your earthly life that 
spirit and virtue of Christ which is the beginning and 
dawn of.heaven, and we shall soon welcome you, with 
more than human friendship, to our own immortality. 
Shall that voice speak to us in vain? Shall our 
worldliness and unforsaken sins separate us, by a gulf 
which cannot be passed, from the society of heaven? 


On The Future Life, p. 366. 


85. The Christian’s Anticipation of the Fellow- 
ship Beyond the Veil 


But the Christian not only maintains a connection 
with his brethren in Heaven by grateful recollections of 
their virtues. Still more closely is he bound to them 
by hope. He does not remember them as embalmed 
in history, to be known only through the records of 
tradition. They still Jive, and are members of the 
same Organic Body with himself. Already he feels 
a brotherhood with them. He is bound to them by 
more than distant admiration, even by close and cor- 


ANTICIPATIONS OF FUTURE LIFE 109 


dial friendship. Eagerly he anticipates a future exist- 
ence, because he shall meet there the venerable dead, 
with whose spirits, still animating their biographies, 
histories, and works, he now communes. He rejoices 
to think of soon hearing, seeing, and holding familiar 
intercourse with inspired prophets and holy poets, 
with philanthropists and sages, with scholars and 
artists, with great-hearted heroes of common life, 
whose characters and deeds have nourished in him 
pure purposes and lofty aspirations; and he is elevated 
towards their sublime height by these soaring expecta- 
tions. [he space that sunders him from them 1s 
daily growing narrower; and his present faint con- 
ceptions of them will soon change into clear, full, inti- 
mate, personal acquaintance. Steadfast in faith, he 
trusts that they will receive and gladly incorporate 
him into their society. This is indeed a glorious and 
glorifying hope, that we shall be greeted with welcome 
by the revered and illustrious, the humble and gentle, 
who have gone before us into the world of light. 
But let us not fear to yield to this high hope. For the 
First among many Brethren will count his work un- 
finished until his prayer shall be fulfilled: that all who 
love and believe in him shall be one with him, and 
with one another, as he and his Father are one, and 
that where he is they shall be also. 
The Church Universal, p. 1018. 


86. The Great and Blessed Society of Jesus’ 
Followers Hereafter 


The departed go not to Jesus only. They go to the 


110 ANTICIPATIONS OF FUTURE LIFE 


great and blessed society which is gathered round him, 
to the redeemed from all regions of earth, “‘to the city 
of the living God, to an innumerable company of 
angels, to the church of the first-born, to the spirits of 
the just made perfect.”” Into what a glorious com- 
munity do they enter! And how they are received 
you can easily understand. We are told there is joy 
in heaven over the sinner who repenteth; and will not 
his ascension to the abode of perfect virtue communi- 
cate more fervent happiness? Our friends who leave 
us for that world do not find themselves cast among 
strangers. No desolate feeling springs up of having 
exchanged their home for a foreign country. ‘The 
tenderest accents of human friendship never ap- 
proached in affectionateness the voice of congratula- 
tion which bids them welcome to their new and ever- 
lasting abode. In that world, where minds have 
surer means of revealing themselves than here, the 
newly arrived immediately see and feel themselves 
encompassed with virtue and goodness; and through 
this insight into the congenial spirits which surround 
them, intimacies stronger than years can cement on 
earth may be created in a moment. 

It seems to me accordant with all the principles of 
human nature, to suppose that the departed meet 
peculiar congratulation from friends who had gone 
before them to that better world; and especially from 
all who had in any way given aids to their virtue; 
from parents who had instilled into them the first 
lessons of love to God and man; from associates, 
whose examples had won them to goodness, whose 
faithful counsels deterred them from sin. The ties 


ANTICIPATIONS OF FULURE. LIBE ) 111 


created by such benefits must be eternal. The grateful 
soul must bind itself with peculiar affection to such as 
guided it to immortality. 

On the Future Life, p. 364. 


87. The Affection and Anxiety of Our 
Departed for Us 


Let us not think of the departed as looking on us 
with earthly, partial affections. ‘They love us more 
than ever, but with a refined and spiritual love. They 
have now but one wish for us, which is, that we may 
fit ourselves to join them in their mansions of benevo- 
lence and piety. Their spiritual vision penetrates to 
our souls. Could we hear their voice, it would not 
be an utterance of personal attachment so much as a 
quickening call to greater effort, to more resolute self- 
denial, to a wider charity, to a meeker endurance, a 
more filial obedience of the will of God. Nor must 
we think of them as appropriated to ourselves. They 
are breathing now an atmosphere of divine benevo- 
lence. They are charged with a higher mission than 
when they trod the earth. And this thought of the 
enlargement of their love should enlarge ours, and 
carry us beyond selfish regards to a benevolence akin 
to that with which they are inspired. 

helhijureilafe p30: 


88. The Usefulness of the Good does 
not End with Death 


Let us not, then, imagine that the usefulness of the 
good is finished at death. Then rather does it begin. 
Let us not judge of their state by associations drawn 


112 ANTICIPATIONS OF FUTURE LIFE 


from the chillness and silence of the grave. ‘They 
have gone to abodes of life, of warmth, of action. 
They have gone to fill a larger place in the system of 
God. Death has expanded their powers. ‘The clogs 
and fetters of the perishable body have fallen off, that 
they may act more freely and with more delight in 
the grand system of creation. We should represent 
them to our minds as ascended to a higher rank of 
existence, and admitted to co-operate with far higher 
communities. ‘This earth was only their school, their 
place of education, where we saw their powers com- 
paratively in an infant state. They have now reached 
a maturer age, and are gone to sustain more important 
relations. ‘They have been called because their agency 
was needed in higher services than those of this world. 
Where they are now acting, it is not given to us to 
know; but the all-wise Father can never be without a 
sphere for the virtues of his children. It would be 
grateful to believe that their influence reaches to the 
present state, and we certainly are not forbidden to 
indulge the hope. But wherever they may be, they 
are more useful, more honorably occupied, than when 
on earth; and by following their steps, we may, how- 
ever separated from them during life, hope to obtain 
admission into the same bright regions where they are 
pressing onward to perfection. 


Lee eae ve 


89. The Reward of the Good in the 
Life Hereafter 


At the great consummation of all things, the dark- 
ness will be dissipated, and the good will reap. Then 


AN TICIPATIONS OF PUTURE: LIFE 113 


they will see their prayers, their toils, their liberal 
contributions, their exhortations, all their various 
exertions for the interests of men, and for the king- 
dom of the Redeemer, improved by infinite wisdom to 
accomplish the happiest ends. ‘They will see that 
their good works failed to accomplish the object they 
desired, only that they might conduce to greater good. 
They will see happiness existing and destined to exist 
and to increase forever, which they were the honored 
instruments of promoting. ‘They will be hailed by 
some grateful voice, ascribing to their prayers and ex- 
ertions the attainment of heavenly blessedness. They 
will see the connection of their labors with the prosper- 
ity and triumphs of the kingdom of God. And joy 
will fill their hearts at finding that they have not lived 
in vain,—that while, perhaps, they have labored in sta- 
tions too humble for the notice of man, they have been 
workers together with God, and been permitted to lay 
the foundation of felicity which shall never end... . 

True benevolence is not- happy in itself; it is happy 
in the felicity of other beings; and in proportion to its 
strength we shall ardently desire to attain to a state 
of existence in which we may behold and promote the 
highest good, may grow in goodness, become members 
of an active society warmed with purest benevolence, 
and be entirely devoted to the designs of the merciful 
God. ‘The prospect of eternal life must be inconceiv- 
ably more dear to a benevolent heart than to any other 
being, because this heart is fixed on an object so glori- 
ous and extensive, that it wants an eternity to enjoy 
and pursue it. Take away the rewards of the gospel 
from the benevolent soul, let him see no spheres of 


114° ANTICIPAZTIONS OF FUTURE LIFE 


usefulness beyond the grave, let him see all his labors 
confined to the narrow sphere of this changing world, 
and his heart will sink and grow cold. ‘There will be 
no object large enough for him to embrace. ‘The 
good heart naturally allies itself with eternity. It is 
its nature to expand its views. Let it behold a king- 
dom of endless and increasing glory under the govern- 
ment of infinite love, and let it be invited to press for- 
ward to this kingdom, and its benevolence will give it 
vigor to pursue the prize. 


Len Melee 
90. A Spiritual Conception of the Idea of Hell 


Ask multitudes what is the chief evil from which 
Christ came to save them, and they will tell you, 
‘From hell, from penal fires, from future punish- 
ment.” Accordingly, they think that salvation is 
something which another may achieve for them, very 
much as a neighbor may quench a conflagration that 
menaces their dwellings and lives. That word hell, 
which is used so seldom in the sacred pages, which in a 
faithful translation would not once occur in the writ- 
ings of Paul, and Peter, and John, which we meet only 
in four or five discourses of Jesus, and which all per- 
sons acquainted with Jewish geography know to be a 
metaphor, a figure of speech, and not a literal expres- 
sion,—this word, by a perverse and exaggerated use, 
has done unspeakable injury to Christianity. It has 
possessed and diseased men’s imaginations with out- 
ward tortures, shrieks, and flames; giving them the 
idea of an outward ruin as what they have chiefly to 
dread; turned their thoughts to Jesus as an outward 


SNL CLEA PIONS OPI BULERESLCIER | 115 


deliverer; and thus blinded them to his true glory, 
which consists in his setting free and exalting the soul. 
Men are flying from an outward hell, when in truth 
they carry within them the hell which they should 
chiefly dread. The salvation which man chiefly needs, 
and that which brings with it all other deliverance, is 
salvation from the evil of his own mind. ‘There is 
something far worse than outward punishment. It is 
sin; it is the state of the soul which has revolted from 
God, and cast off its allegiance to conscience and the 
divine word; which renounces its Father, and hardens 
itself against Infinite Love; which, endued with divine 
powers, enthralls itself to animal lusts; which makes 
gain its god; which has capacities of boundless and 
ever-growing love, and shuts itself up in the dungeon 
of private interests; which, gifted with a self-directing 
power, consents to be a slave, and is passively formed 
by custom, opinion, and changing events; which, living 
under God’s eye, dreads man’s frown or scorn, and 
prefers human praise to its own calm consciousness of 
virtue; which tamely yields to temptation, shrinks with 
a coward’s baseness from the perils of duty, and sacri- 
fices its glory and peace in parting with self-control. 
No ruin can be compared to this. ‘This the impenitent 
man carries with him beyond the grave, and there 
meets its natural issue and inevitable retribution, in 
remorse, self-torture, and woes unknown on earth. 
This we cannot too strongly fear. ‘To save, in the 
highest sense of that word, is to lift the fallen spirit 
from this depth, to heal the diseased mind, to restore 
it to energy and freedom of thought, conscience, and 
love. 


The Great Purpose of Christianity, p. 251. 


+ 


INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE AND 
INTEGRITY 


g1. Independent Decision in Religious Questions the 
Prerogative of Every Man 


It is sometimes said, that the multitude may think 
on the common business of life, but not on higher sub- 
jects, and especially on religion. ‘This, it is said, must 
be received on authority; on this, men in general can 
form no judgment of their own. But this is the last 
subject on which the individual should be willing 
to surrender himself to others’ dictation. In nothing 
has he so strong an interest. In nothing is it so 
important that his mind and heart should be alive 
and engaged. In nothing has he readier means 
of judging for himself. In nothing, as_ history 
shows, is he more likely to be led astray by such as 
assume the office of thinking for him. Religion is a 
subject open to all minds. Its great truths have their 
foundation in the soul itself, and their proofs surround 
us on all sides. God has not shut up the evidence of 
his being in a few books, written in a foreign language, 
and locked up in the libraries of colleges and philoso- 
phers; but has written his name on the heavens and on 
the earth, and even on the minutest animal and plant; 
and his word, taught by Jesus Christ, was not given 
to scribes and lawyers, but taught to the poor, to the 
mass Of men, on mountains, in streets, and on the sea- 


shore. Let me not be told that the multitude do 
116 


INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 117 


actually receive religion on authority, or on the word 
of others. I reply, that a faith so received seems to 
me of little worth. The precious, the living, the 
effectual part of a poor man’s faith, is that of which 
he sees the reasonableness and excellence; that which 
approves itself to his intelligence, his conscience, his 
heart; that which answers to deep wants in his own 
soul, and of which he has the witness in his own in- 
ward and outward experience. All other parts of his 
belief, those which he takes on blind trust, and in 
which he sees no marks of truth and divinity, do him 
little or no good. Too often they do him harm, by 
perplexing his simple reason, by substituting the fic- 
tions and artificial systems of theologians for the plain 
precepts of love, and justice, and humility, and filial 
trust in God. As long as it was supposed that re- 
ligion is to benefit the world by laying restraints, 
awakening fears, and acting as a part of the system 
of police, so long it was natural to rely on authority 
and tradition as the means of its propagation; so long 
it was desirable to stifle thought and inquiry on the 
subject. But now that we have learned that the true 
ofice of religion is to awaken pure and lofty senti- 
ments, and to unite man to God by rational homage 
and enlightened love, there is something monstrous 
in placing religion beyond the thought and the study 
of the mass of the human race. 
Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 53. 


92. The Independence of the Individual 
Mind and Conscience 


What many of us have chiefly to dread from society 


118 INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 


is, not that we shall acquire a positive character of vice; 
but that it will impose on us a negative character; that 
we shall live and die passive beings; that the creative 
and self-forming energy of the soul will not be called 
forth in the work of our improvement. Our danger 
is, that we shall substitute the consciences of others 
for our own, that we shall paralyze our faculties 
through dependence on foreign guides, that we shall 
be moulded from abroad instead of determining our- 
selves. [he pressure of society upon us is constant 
and almost immeasurable; now open and direct in the 
form of authority and menace, now subtile and silent 
in the guise of blandishment and promise. What 
mighty power is lodged in a frown or a smile, in the 
voice of praise and flattery, in scorn or neglect, in 
public opinion, in domestic habits and prejudices, in 
the state and spirit of the community to which we be- 
long! Nothing escapes the cognizance of society. 
Its legislation extends even to our dress, movements, 
features; and the individual bears the traces, even in 
countenance, air, and voice, of the social influences 
amidst which he has been plunged. We are in great 
peril of growing up slaves to this exacting, arbitrary 
sovereign; of forgetting, or never learning, our true 
responsibility; of living in unconsciousness of that di- 
vine power with which we are invested over ourselves, 
and in which all the dignity of our nature is concen- 
tred; of overlooking the sacredness of our minds, and 
laying them open to impressions from any and all who 
surround us. Resistance of this foreign pressure is 
our only safeguard, and is essential to virtue. All 
virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in 


INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE £19 


self-determination. ‘There is no moral worth in be- 
ing swept away by a crowd, even towards the best 
objects. We must act from an inward spring. The 
good as well as the bad may injure us, if through 
that intolerance which is a common infirmity of the 
good, they impose on us authoritatively their own con- 
victions, and obstruct our own intellectual and moral 
activity. A state of society in which correct habits 
prevail, may produce in many a mechanical regularity 
and religion which is any thing but virtue. Nothing 
morally great or good springs from mere sympathy 
and imitation. These principles will only forge 
chains for us, and perpetuate our infancy, unless more 
and more controlled and subdued by that inward law- 
giver and judge, whose authority is from God, and 
whose sway over our whole nature alone secures its 
free, glorious, and everlasting expansion. 
Remarks on Associations, p. 142. 


93. Spiritual Freedom 


Spiritual freedom is the attribute of a mind in which 
reason and conscience have begun to act, and which 
is free through its own energy, through fidelity to the 
truth, through resistance of temptation. It has 
pleased the All-wise Disposer to encompass us from 
our birth by difficulty and allurement, to place us in a 
world where wrong-doing is often gainful, and duty 
rough and perilous, where many vices oppose the dic- 
tates of the inward monitor, where the body presses 
as a weight on the mind, and matter, by its perpetual 
agency on the senses, becomes a barrier between us and 
the spiritual world. We are in the midst of influences 


12200 INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 


which menace the intellect and heart; and to be free 
is to withstand and conquer these. He only is free 
who, through self-conflict and moral resolution, sus- 
tained by trust in God, subdues the passions which 
have debased him, and, escaping the thraldom of low 
objects, binds himself to pure and lofty ones. ‘That 
mind alone is free which, looking to God as the in- 
spirer and rewarder of virtue, adopts his law, writ- 
ten on the heart and in his word, as its supreme rule, 
and which, in obedience to this, governs itself, reveres 
itself, exerts faithfully its best powers, and unfolds 
itself by well-doing in whatever sphere God’s provi- 
dence assigns. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 173. 


94. The Distinguishing Marks of a 
Free Mind 


I call that mind free which masters the senses, which 
protects itself against animal appetites, which con- 
temns pleasure and pain in comparison with its own 
energy, which penetrates beneath the body and recog- 
nizes its own reality and greatness, which passes life, 
not in asking what it shall eat or drink, but in hunger- 
ing, thirsting, and seeking after righteousness. 

I call that mind free which escapes the bondage of 
matter, which, instead of stopping at the material uni- 
verse and making it a prison wall, passes beyond it to 
its Author, and finds in the radiant signatures which it 
everywhere bears of the Infinite Spirit, helps to its own 
spiritual enlargement. 

I call that mind free which jealously guards its in- 


INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 121 


tellectual rights and powers, which calls no man 
master, which does. not content itself with a passive 
or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whence- 
soever it may come, which receives new truth as an 
angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting others, 
inquires still more of the oracle within itself, and uses 
instructions from abroad not to supersede but to 
quicken and exalt its own energies. | 

I call that mind free which sets no bounds to its 
love, which is not imprisoned in itself or in a sect, 
which recognizes in all human beings the image of 
God and the rights of his children, which delights in 
virtue and sympathizes with suffering wherever they 
are seen, which conquers pride, anger, and sloth, and 
offers itself up a willing victim to the cause of man- 
kind. 

I call that mind free which is not passively framed 
by outward circumstances, which is not swept away by 
the torrent of events, which is not the creature of 
accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own 
improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from 
immutable principles which it has deliberately es- 
poused. 

I call that mind free which protects itself against 
the usurpations of society, which does not cower to 
human opinion, which feels itself accountable to a 
higher tribunal than man’s, which respects a higher 
law than fashion, which respects itself too much to be 
the slave or tool of the many or the few. 

I call that mind free which, through confidence in 
God and in the power of virtue, has cast off all fear 


22 INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 


but that of wrong-doing, which no menace or peril 
can enthrall, which is calm in the midst of tumults, and 
possesses itself though all else be lost. 

I call that mind free which resists the bondage of 
habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and 
copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, 
which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which 
forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher 
monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself 
forth in fresh and higher exertions. 

I call that mind free which is jealous of its own free- 
dom, which guards itself from being merged in others, 
which guards its empire over itself as nobler than the 
empire of the world. 

Spiritual Freedom, p. 174. 


95. The Man Who is Wanting in Force of Principle 


and Purpose is a Slave 


We may learn that the chief good and the most 
precious fruit of civil liberty is spiritual freedom and 
power, by considering what is the chief evil of tyranny. 
I know that tyranny does evil by invading men’s out- 
ward interests, by making property and life insecure, 
by robbing the laborer to pamper the noble and king. 
But its worst influence is within. Its chief curse is 
that it breaks and'tames the spirit, sinks man in his 
own eyes, takes away vigor of thought and action, 
substitutes for conscience an outward rule, makes him 
abject, cowardly, a parasite, and ‘a cringing slave. 
This is the curse of tyranny. It wars with the soul, 
and thus it wars with God. We read in theologians 
and poets of angels fighting against the Creator, of 


INTEELECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 123 


battles in heaven. The only war against God is 
against his image, against the divine principle in the 
soul, and this is waged by tyranny in ‘all its forms. 
We here see the chief curse of tyranny; and this 
should teach us that civil freedom is a blessing, chiefly 
as it reverences the human soul and ministers to its 
growth and power. 

Without this inward spiritual freedom outward 
liberty is of little worth. What boots it that I am 
crushed by no foreign yoke if, through ignorance and 
vice, through selfishness and fear, I want the command 
of my own mind? The worst tyrants are those which 
establish themselves in our own breast. The man who 
wants force of principle and purpose is a slave, how- 
ever free the air he breathes. The mind, after all, is 
our only possession, or, in other words, we possess all 
things through its energy and enlargement; and civil 
institutions are to be estimated by the free and pure 
minds to which they give birth. 

Spiritual Freedom, p. 175. 


96. The Mind Open to Truth 


A mind which is open to truth, which sees things 
as they are, which forms right judgments of its own 
duties and condition, and of the character and rights 
of all with whom it is connected, is immeasurably 
exalted above the narrow, dark, confused intellect, 
which sees everything as through a mist, gives to 
everything the color of its own feelings, confines itself 
to what coincides with its wishes, contents itself with 
superficial views, and thus perpetually falls into errors 
and misapprehensions. . 


1224 INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 


Am I asked in what this honesty of mind consists, or 
what is included in it? I answer,—would we be 
honest, we must fill ourselves with a deep sense of the 
infinite value of truth, with a desire to see everything 
as it is, to form a right judgment on every subject; 
and we must labor that this desire may exceed in 
strength all those passions which so often darken and 
blind the understanding. A supreme love of truth, a 
disposition to make all sacrifices to it, and to follow 
it, though it lead to contempt, loss, and danger,—this 
is the very essence of honesty of mind; and where this 
exists, it will induce impartial and serious inquiry. 

Our honesty of mind bears an exact proportion to 
the patience, steadiness, and resolution with which we 
inquire. When an ‘opinion is proposed to us which 
does not agree with our past conceptions, we must not 
reject it as soon as proposed, and, to save ourselves 
the trouble of inquiring and the shame of retracting, 
say that on this point we have made up our mind; 
but, on the contrary, under inquiry, we shall come to a 
decision, but to a very different decision from what 
others wish and expect. This is a trying condition; 
but we must show our sense of the sacredness of truth 
by steadfastly adhering to it, wherever we are ‘called 
to express our sentiments. Nothing should tempt us 
to belie the convictions of our minds. It is better to 
be forsaken and renounced by men, than to seek their 
friendship by affecting compliance with what seem to 
us errors. We are not called to be forward, rude, 
intemperate, in expressing our sentiments. We ought 
to be prudent; but Christian prudence is never to be 
separated from Christian simplicity and_ sincerity. 


INT EEE EC TUAL INDEPENDENCE = 125 


When called to act, we should uniformly espouse what 
we deem to be truth, and in this cause should be willing 
LOpSUITE Taree oes 

This is honesty of mind,—a most noble spirit,— 
the distinction of a truly good and great man. It is 
a quality of character without which the most splendid 
talents ‘are of little avail; for then intellectual vigor 
may prove a curse, and may only help to plunge us 
deeper into error. This fairness of mind is not a very 
showy virtue, especially when it is exercised in the 
common concerns of life; but perhaps it includes more 
magnanimity, courage, and self-denial than any other 
virtue. Multitudes have dared to face death in the 
field of battle, who have yet wanted strength and 
spirit to oppose their own and others’ prejudices. . . . 

This virtue will especially give inward peace. ‘The 
man of an honest mind has a consciousness of the 
truth of his convictions, which no other man can have. 


JEDI) 70s Welyey: 





97. Moral Independence 


The progress of society depends chiefly on the 
honest inquiry of the individual into the particular 
work ordained him by God, and on his simplicity in 
following out his convictions. This moral indepen- 
dence is mightier, as well as holier, than the practice 
of getting warm in crowds, and of waiting for an 1m- 
pulse from multitudes. ‘The moment a man parts 
with moral independence; the moment he judges of 
duty, not from the inward voice, but from the interests 
and will of a party; the moment he commits himself 
to a leader or a body, and winks at evil, because divi- 


126 INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 


sion would hurt the cause; the moment he shakes off 
his particular responsibility, because he is but one in 
a thousand or million by whom the evil is done,—that 
moment he parts with his moral power. He is shorn 
of the energy of single-hearted faith in the right and 
the true. He hopes from man’s policy what nothing 
but loyalty to God can accomplish. He substitutes 
coarse weapons forged by man’s wisdom for celestial 
power. 


On Slavery, p. 734. 


98. Serious and Honest Inquiry into Religion 


The opinion is not entirely correct, that inquiry into 
religion has produced the multiplicity of sects in the 
Christian world. I would rather say, that the want 
of examination has often originated and extended 
them. The readiness of numbers to embrace what 
is dogmatically and loudly asserted, what addresses the 
passions instead of the understanding, has been the 
greatest temptation to the heads of sects to propagate 
their peculiarities, and furnishes them with followers. 
The heads of sects have generally their full share of 
ambition, and their ambition is fostered and made 
more active by the common disposition which they see 
to receive their doctrines without examination. We 
must not imagine that the way to stifle sects is to en- 
courage men to receive religious opinions without 
thought or inquiry. In a land of universal toleration, 
this is the most direct way of laying them open to 
imposition and enthusiasm. The only way of produc- 
ing uniformity is to encourage serious and honest in- 


quiry. 


INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE 127 


It is the influence of such examination to bring truth 
to light. Truth is not hidden beneath an impenetra- 
ble veil, but reveals herself to the sincere inquirer. 
Men of this character are not easily led away by 
noisy declamations, by bold assertions, by high pre- 
tensions. ‘[hey soon learn that true wisdom is not 
characterized by positiveness, and that those who claim 
most unreserved assent from others deserve it the 
least. They demand proof, and this is the last de- 
mand which enthusiasm is prepared and inclined to 
answer. They are not carried away by sounds and 
names. [hey do not range themselves under a par- 
ticular banner and denounce war and destruction on all 
who take a different standard of belief. Claiming for 
themselves the right of inquiry, and taught by inquiry 
that they are prone to err, they become more diffiident 
of their own judgment, and lay aside their censorious- 
ness towards others. And if they do not agree en- 
tirely in sentiment with those around them, they still 
live in peace, and give and receive light; and thus a 
foundation is laid for real and increasing uniformity 
of opinion... . 


ipemp ail 2: 


THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


99. The Ultimate Reliance of a Human Being 
is on His Own Mind 


It is an important truth, which we apprehend has 
not been sufhiciently developed, that the ultimate re- 
liance of a human being is and must be on his own 
mind. To confide in God, we must first confide in the 
faculties by which he is apprehended, and by which 
the proofs of his existence are weighed. A trust in 
our ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood 
is implied in every act of belief; for to question this 
ability would of necessity unsettle all belief. We can- 
not take a step in reasoning or action without a secret 
reliance on our own minds. Religion in particular im- 
plies that we have understandings endowed and quali- 
fied for the highest employments of intellect. In af- 
firming the existence and perfections of God, we 
suppose and affirm the existence in ourselves of 
faculties which correspond to these sublime objects, 
and which are fitted to discern them. Religion is a 
conviction and an act of the human soul, so that in 
denying confidence to the one, we subvert the truth 
and claims of the other. Nothing is gained to piety 
by degrading human nature, for in the competency of 
this nature to know and judge of God all piety has 
its foundation. Our proneness to err instructs us, 


indeed, to use our powers with great caution, but not 
125 


THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 129 


to contemn and neglect them. ‘The occasional abuse 
of our faculties, be it ever so enormous, does not prove 
them unfit for their highest end, which is to form clear 
and consistent views of God. Because our eyes some- 
times fail or deceive us, would a wise man pluck them 
out, or cover them with a bandage, and choose to walk 
and work in the dark? or, because they cannot distin- 
guish distant objects, can they discern nothing clearly 
in their proper sphere, and is sight to be pronounced 
a fallacious guide? Men who, to support a creed, 
would shake our trust in the calm, deliberate, and dis- 
tinct decisions of our rational and moral powers, en- 
danger religion more than its open foes, and forge the 
deadliest weapon for the infidel. 
The Moral Argument Against Calvinism, p. 462. 


100. Never Do Violence to Your Rational 
Nature 


If, after a deliberate and impartial use of our best 
faculties, a professed revelation seems to us plainly 
to disagree with itself or to clash with great principles 
which we cannot question, we ought not to hesitate 
to withhold from it our belief. JI am surer that my 
rational nature is from God than that any book is an 
expression of his will. This light in my own breast is 
his primary revelation, and all subsequent ones must 
accord with it, and are, in fact, intended to blend with 
and brighten it. My hearers, as you value Christian- 
ity, never speak of it as in any thing opposed to man’s 
rational nature. Join not its foes in casting on it this 
reproach. It was given, not to supersede our rational 
faculties, but to quicken and invigorate them, to open 


130 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


a wider field to thought, to bring peace into the intellect 
as well as into the heart, to give harmony to all our 
views. We grievously wrong Christianity by suppos- 
ing it to raise a standard against reason, or to demand 
the sacrifice of our noblest faculties. These are her 
allies, friends, kindred. With these she holds unalter- 
able concord. Never, never do violence to your ra- 
tional nature. He who in any case admits doctrines 
which contradict reason, has broken down the great 
barrier between truth and falsehood, and lays open his 
mind to every delusion. The great mark of error, 
which is inconsistency, ceases to shock him. He has 
violated the first law of the intellect, and must pay the 
fearful penalty. Happy will it be for him if, by the 
renunciation of reason, he be not prepared for the op- 
posite extreme, and do not, through a natural reaction, 
rush into the excess of incredulity. 


On Self-Denial, p. 338. 


101. Intellectual Bondage is Treason to Human 
Nature 


In truth, a paralyzing influence has been working 
mightily for ages in the Christian world, and we ought 
not to wonder at its results. Free action has been de- 
nied to the mind, and freedom is an essential condition 
of growth and power. A fettered limb moves slowly 
and operates feebly. The spirit pines away in a 
prison; and yet to rear prison-walls round the mind has 
been the chief toil of ages. The mischiefs of this in- 
tellectual bondage are as yet, we conceive, but imper- 
fectly known, and need to be set forth with a new 


THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 131 


eloquence. If, as we believe, progress be the supreme 
law of the soul and the very aim of its creation, then no 
wrong can be inflicted on it so grievous as to bind it 
down everlastingly to a fixed, unvarying creed, especi- 
ally if this creed was framed in an age of darkness, 
crime, and political and religious strife. This tyranny 
is pre-eminently treason against human nature. If 
growth be the supreme law and purpose of the mind, 
then the very truth, which was suited to one age, may, 
if made the limit of future ones, become a positive 
evil; just as the garment, in which childhood sports 
with ease and joy, would irritate and deform the en- 
larging frame. God, having framed the soul for ex- 
pansion, has placed it in the midst of an unlimited 
universe to receive fresh impulses and impressions 
without end; and man, ‘‘dressed in a little brief au- 
thority,” would sever it from this sublime connection, 
and would shape it after his own ignorance or narrow 
views. The effects are as necessary as they are mourn- 
ful. The mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free 
communication with nature, with revelation, with God, 
with itself, loses its life, just as the body droops when 
debarred from the fresh air and the cheering light 
of heaven. 


On Feénélon, p. 561. 


102. Monopoly of Thought in Religious Matters 
Belongs to no Individual or Class 


A very common error is, that the many are not to 
be called to think, study, improve their minds, because 
a privileged few are intended by God to do their 
thinking for them. “Providence,” it is said, ‘‘raises 


132 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


up superior minds, whose office it is to discover truth 
for the rest of the race. Thinking and manual toil 
are not meant to go together. ‘The division of labor 
is a great law of nature. One man is to serve society 
by his head, another by his hands. Let each class 
keep to its proper work.’’ ‘These doctrines I protest 
against. JI deny to any individual or class this mo- 
nopoly of thought. Who among men can show God's 
commission to think for his brethren, to shape pas- 
sively the intellect of the mass, to stamp his own image 
on them as if they were wax? Were the mass of men 
made to be monsters? to grow only in a few organs 
and faculties, and to pine away and shrivel in others? 
or were they made to put forth all the powers of men, 
especially the best and most distinguishing? No man, 
not the lowest, is all hands, all bones, and muscles. 
The mind is more essential to human nature, and more 
enduring, than the limbs; and was this made to lie 
dead? Is not thought the right and duty of all? Is 
not truth alike precious to all? Is not truth the nat- 
ural aliment of the mind, as plainly as the wholesome 
grain is of the body? Undoubtedly some men are 
more gifted than others, and are marked out for more 
studious lives. But the work of such men is not to do 
others’ thinking for them, but to help them to think 
more vigorously and effectually. Great minds are to 
make others great. Their superiority is to be used, 
not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, 
not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to 
rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge 
for themselves. The light and life which spring up 
in one soul are to be spread far and wide. Of all 


THE PRINCIPLES: OF LIBERALISM (133 


treasons against humanity, there is no one worse than 
his who employs great intellectual force to keep down 
the intellect of his less favored brother. 

The Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 52. 


103. Lhe Tyranny of Bigotry 


There are countless ways by which men in a free 
country may encroach on their neighbors’ rights. In 
religion, the instrument is ready made and always at 
hand. I refer to opinion combined and organized in 
sects and swayed by the clergy. We say we have no 
Inquisition. But a sect skilfully organized, trained 
to utter one cry, combined to cover with reproach who- 
ever may differ from themselves, to drown the free 
expression of opinion by denunciations of heresy, and 
to strike terror into the multitude by joint and per- 
petual menace,—such a sect is as perilous and palsying 
to the intellect as the Inquisition. It serves the min- 
isters as effectually as the sword. ‘he present age ts 
notoriously sectarian, and therefore hostile to liberty. 
One of the strongest features of our times is the ten- 
dency of men to run into associations, to lose them- 
selves in masses, to think and act in crowds, to act 
from the excitement of numbers, to sacrifice individu- 
ality, to identify themselves with parties and sects. 
At such a period we ought to fear—and cannot too 
much dread—lest a host should be marshalled under 
some sectarian standard, so numerous and so strong as 
to overawe opinion, stifle inquiry, compel dissenters 
to a prudent silence, and thus accomplish the end, with- 
out incurring the odium, of penal laws. We have in- 
deed no small protection against this evil in the multi- 


134 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


plicity of sects. But let us not forget that coalitions 
are as practicable and as perilous in church as in state; 
and that minor differences, as they are called, may be 
sunk for the purpose of joint exertion against a com- 
mon foe. Happily, the spirit of this people, in spite 
of all narrowing influences, is essentially liberal. 
Here lies our safety. ‘The liberal spirit of the people, 
I trust, is more and more to temper and curb that ex- 
clusive spirit which is the besetting sin of their religious 
ouides. 
Spiritual Freedom, p. 180. 


104. Denunciation of our Religious Opponents 
Nullifies our Christian Ideals 


Why is truth to be promoted? Not for its own 
sake, but for its influence on the heart, its influence in 
forming a Christian temper. In what, then, does this 
temper consist? very much in candor, forbearance, and 
kind affection. It follows, that any method of pro- 
moting truth which is unfriendly to these virtues is 
unchristian; it sacrifices the end to the means of 
religion. Now let me ask, whether the practice of 
rejecting as ungodly men those who differ from us on 
subtile, perplexing, and almost (if not altogether) un- 
intelligible doctrines, be not obviously and directly op- 
posed to the exercise and diffusion of candor, forbear- 
ance, kind affection, and peace. Has it not actually 
convulsed the church for ages with discord and war? 
The right of denouncing those who differ on such doc- 
trines, if granted to one Christian, must be granted to 
all; and do we need the spirit of prophecy to foretell 
the consequences, if the ignorant, passionate, and 


THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 135 


enthusiastic, who form the majority of every commu- 
nity, shall undertake to carry this right into practice? 
The idea, that a religion which is destined for weak 
and fallible mortals of all classes and capacities, and 
which is designed to promote unity, peace, candor, and 
love, should yet make it our duty to reject, as wholly 
destitute of goodness, every man, however uniform in 
conduct, who can not see as we do on points where 
we ourselves see little or nothing, appears to me the 
grossest contradiction and absurdity. If this be 
Christianity, we may say anything of our religion more 
truly, than that it is a religion of peace. 
Lif ZAGE 


105. The Passionate Vehemence of the Reformer 
is often Justified 


We must not mistake Christian benevolence, as if 
it had but one voice, that of soft entreaty. It can 
speak in piercing and awful tones. ‘There is con- 
stantly going on in our world a conflict between good 
and evil. The cause of human nature has always to 
wrestle with foes. All improvement is a victory won 
by struggles. It is especially true of those great 
periods which have been distinguished by revolutions 
in government and religion, and from which we date 
the most rapid movements of the human mind, that 
they have been signalized by conflict. ‘Thus Chris- 
tianity convulsed the world and grew up amidst 
storms; and the Reformation of Luther was a signal 
to universal war; and liberty in both worlds has en- 
countered opposition over which she has triumphed 
only through her own immortal energies. At such 


136 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


periods, men, gifted with great power of thought and 
loftiness of sentiment, are especially summoned to the 
conflict with evil. They hear, as it were, in their own 
magnanimity and generous aspirations, the voice of a 
divinity; and thus commissioned, and burning with a 
passionate devotion to truth and freedom, they must 
and will speak with an indignant energy, and they 
ought not to be measured by the standard of ordinary 
minds in ordinary times. Men of natural softness 
and timidity, of a sincere but effeminate virtue, will be 
apt to look on these bolder, hardier spirits, as violent, 
perturbed, and uncharitable; and the charge will not 
be wholly groundless. But that deep feeling of evils, 
which is necessary to effectual conflict with them, and 
which marks God’s most powerful messengers to man- 
kind, cannot breathe itself in soft and tender accents. 
The deeply moved soul will speak strongly, and ought 
to speak so as to move and shake nations. 


On Milton, p. 504. 


106. A Rational Attitude Toward the Bible 


We profess not to know a book which demands a 
more frequent exercise of reason than the Bible. In 
addition to the remarks now made on its infinite con- 
nections, we may observe, that its style nowhere affects 
the precision of science or the accuracy of definition. 
Its language is singularly glowing, bold, and figurative, 
demanding more frequent departures from the literal 
sense than that of our own age and country, and con- 
sequently demanding more continual exercise of judg- 
ment. We find, too, that the different portions of 
this book, instead of being confined to general truths, 


veo hNCEDERSEORVICIBE RATSISM” (14% 


refer perpetually to the times when they were written, 
to states of society, to modes of thinking, to contro- 
versies in the church, to feelings and usages which have 
passed away, and without the knowledge of which we 
are constantly in danger of extending to all times and 
places what was of temporary and local application. 
We find, too, that some of these books are strongly 
marked by the genius and character of their respective 
writers, that the Holy Spirit did not so guide the 
apostles as to suspend the peculiarities of their minds, 
and that a knowledge of their feelings, and of the 
influences under which they were placed, is one of the 
preparations for understanding their writings. With 
these views of the Bible, we feel it our bounden duty 
to exercise our reason upon it perpetually, to compare, 
to infer, to look beyond the letter to the spirit, to 
seek in the nature of the subject and the aim of the 
writer his true meaning; and, in general, to make use 
of what is known for explaining what is difficult, and 
for discovering new truths. 
Unitarian Christianity, p. 368. 


107. The Debasement of God’s Nature Implied by 


the Doctrine of Vicarious Atonement 


Suppose, that a teacher should come among you, 
and should tell you that the Creator, in order to 
pardon his own children, had erected a gallows in the 
centre of the universe, and had publicly executed upon 
it, in room of the offenders, an Infinite Being, the par- 
taker of his own Supreme Divinity; suppose him to 
declare that this execution was appointed as a most 
conspicuous and terrible manifestation of God’s jus- 


138 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


tice, and of the infinite woe denounced by his law; and 
suppose him to add that all beings in heaven and earth 
are required to fix their eyes on this fearful sight, as 
the most powerful enforcement of obedience and 
virtue. Would you not tell him that he calumniated 
his Maker? Would you not say to him, that this 
central gallows threw gloom over the universe; that 
the spirit of a government whose very acts of pardon 
were written in such blood was terror, not paternal 
love; and that the obedience which needed to be up- 
held by this horrid spectacle was nothing worth? 
Would you not say to him, that even you, in this in- 
fancy and imperfection of your being, were capable 
of being wrought upon by nobler motives, and of hat- 
ing sin through more generous views; and that, much 
more, the angels, those pure flames of love, need not 
the gallows and an executed God to confirm their 
loyalty? You would all so feel at such teaching as 
I have supposed; and yet how does this differ from 
the popular doctrine of atonement? According to 
this doctrine, we have an Infinite Being sentenced to 
suffer, as a substitute, the death of the cross, a punish- 
ment more ignominious and agonizing than the gal- 
lows, a punishment reserved for slaves and the vilest 
malefactors; and he suffers this punishment that he 
may show forth the terrors of God’s law, and strike 
a dread of sin through the universe. I am indeed 
aware that multitudes who profess this doctrine are 
not accustomed to bring it to their minds distinctly in 
this light; that they do not ordinarily regard the death 
of Christ as a criminal execution, as an infinitely dread- 
ful infliction of justice, as intended to show that, with- 


THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 139 


out an infinite satisfaction, they must hope nothing 
from God. Their minds turn, by a generous instinct, 
from these appalling views, to the love, the disinterest- 
edness, the moral grandeur and beauty of the sufferer; 
and through such thoughts they make the cross a 
source of peace, gratitude, love, and hope; thus afford- 
ing a delightful exemplification of the power of the 
human mind to attach itself to what is good and purt- 
fying in the most irrational system. Not a few may 
shudder at the illustration which I have here given; 
but in what respects it is unjust to the popular doc- 
trine of atonement, I cannot discern. I grieve to shock 
sincere Christians, of whatever name; but I grieve 
more for the corruption of our common faith, which I 
have now felt myself bound to expose. 
Unitarian Christianity Favorable to Piety, p. 397. 


108. Religious Revivals are Contrived to Subvert 
Deliberation and Self-Control 


We have many objections to revivals of religion as 
commonly conducted; but nothing offends us more than 
their direct and striking tendency to overwhelm the 
mind with foreign influences, and to strip it of all self- 
direction. In these feverish seasons, religion, or what 
bears the name, is spread, as by contagion, and to 
escape it is almost as difficult as to avoid a raging epli- 
demic. Whoever knows any thing of human nature, 
knows the effect of excitement in a crowd. When 
systematically prolonged and urged onward, it sub- 
verts deliberation and self-control. The individual is 
lost in the mass, and borne away as in a whirlwind. 
The prevalent emotion, be it love or hatred, terror or 


140 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


enthusiasm, masters every mind which is not fortified 
by a rare energy, or secured by a rare insensibility. 
In revivals, a multitude is subjected at once to strong 
emotions, which are swelled and perpetuated by the 
most skilful management. ‘The individual is never 
suffered to escape the grasp of the leading or sub- 
ordinate agents in the work. A machinery of social 
influences, of “inquiry meetings,’ of ‘‘anxious meet- 
ings,’ of conferences, of prayer meetings, of perpetual 
private or public impulses, is brought to bear on the 
diseased subject, until, exhausted in body and mind, he 
becomes the passive, powerless recipient of whatever 
form or impressions it may be thought fit to give him. 
Happily for mankind, our nature loses its sensibility 
to perpetual stimulants, and of consequence a revival 
is succeeded by what is called “a dull, dead, stupid 
season.’ This dull time is a merciful repose granted 
by Providence to the overwrought and oppressed 
mind, and gives some chance for calm, deliberate, 
individual thought and action. Thus the kindness of 
nature is perpetually counterworking the excesses of 
men, and a religion which begins in partial insanity is 
often seen to attain by degrees to the calmness and 
dignity of reason. 
Remarks on Associations, p. 144. 


109. The Ends for Which a Liberal Church is Erected 


This house is not reared to perpetuate the super- 
stitions of past ages nor of the present age. It is 
not reared to doom the worshipper to continual repe- 
tition of his own or other delusions. It is reared for 
the progress of truth, reared in the faith that the 


Tbe PR ENCIPEES OF LIBERALISM 141 


church is destined to new light and new purity, reared 
in the anticipation of a happier, holier age. As I 
look round, I am met by none of the representations 
of the Divinity which degraded the ancient temples. 
My eyes light on no image of wood or stone, on no 
efforts of art to embody to the eye the invisible Spirit. 
As I look round, I am met by none of the forms which 
Providence, in accommodation to a rude stage of so- 
ciety allowed to the Jewish people. No altar sends 
up here the smoke of incense or victims. No priest- 
hood, gorgeously arrayed, presents to God the material 
offerings of man. Nor are my eyes pained by cumber- 
some ceremonies, by which in later ages Christianity 
was overlaid, and almost overwhelmed. No childish 
pomps, borrowed from Judaism and Heathenism, ob- 
scure here the simple majesty, the sublime spiritual 
purpose of Christianity. Nor is this house reared for 
the promulgation of doctrines which tend to perpetu- 
ate the old servility with which God was approached, 
to make man abject in the sight of his Maker, to palsy 
him with terror, to prostrate his reason. ‘This house 
is reared to assist the worshipper in conceiving and 
offering more and more perfectly the worship de- 
scribed in the text, the worship of the Father in spirit 
and in truth. 


Christian Worship, p. 412. 


110. The Dedication of a Liberal Church 


We end by offering up this building to the Only 
Living and True God. We have erected it amidst 
our private habitations, as a remembrancer of our 
Creator. We have reared it in this busy city, as a 


142 THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 


retreat for pious meditation and prayer. We dedi- 
cate it to the King and Father Eternal, the King of 
kings and Lord of lords. We dedicate it to his Unity, 
to his unrivalled and undivided Majesty. We dedi- 
cate it to the praise of his free, unbought, unmerited 
grace. We dedicate it to Jesus Christ, to the memory 
of his love, to the celebration of his divine virtue, to 
the preaching of that truth which he sealed with blood. 
We dedicate it to the Holy Spirit, to the sanctifying 
influence of God, to those celestial emanations of light 
and strength which visit and refresh the devout mind. 
We dedicate it to prayers and praises which, we trust, 
will be continued and perfected in heaven. We dedi- 
cate it to social worship, to Christian intercourse, to 
the communion of saints. We dedicate it to the cause 
of pure morals, of public order, of temperance, up- 
rightness, and general good-will. We dedicate it to 
Christian admonition, to those warnings, remon- 
strances, and earnest and tender persuasions, by which 
the sinner may be arrested and brought back to God. 
We dedicate it to Christian consolation, to those truths 
which assuage sorrow, animate penitence, and lighten 
the load of human anxiety and fear. We dedicate it 
to the doctrine of immortality, to sublime and joyful 
hopes which reach beyond the grave. In a word, we 
dedicate it to the great work of perfecting the human 
soul, and fitting it for nearer approach to its Author. 
Here may heart meet heart! Here may man meet 
God! From this place may the song of praise, the 
ascription of gratitude, the sigh of penitence, the 
prayer for grace, and the holy resolve, ascend as fra- 
grant incense to heaven; and, through many genera- 


THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM 143 


tions, may parents bequeath to their children this house, 
as a sacred spot, where God had “lifted upon them his 
countenance,” and given them pledges of his ever- 
lasting love! 


Unitarian Christianity Favorable to Piety, p. 400. 


THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN IN 
DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE 


111. 4 Spirit of Humanity Distinguishes Modern 
Times 


What constitutes the chief superiority of modern 
times? I know there are those who say, we have no 
superiority. ‘But how any man can read ancient his- 
tory, and not perceive the immense advance of the 
human race, amazes me. ‘We have not advanced in- 
deed as we should and might have done. And in some 
qualities antiquity surpassed us. But there is one 
glorious element in the present condition of society 
that fills me with ever-new gratitude and hope. In 
the Christian world appears a spirit of humanity, ut- 
terly unknown in the ancient world. Man looks upon 
his fellow man as he never looked before. New and 
sacred ties now bind all men together. ‘There is at 
work a philanthropy—which not only descends with 
sympathy and aid to the lowest depths of social misery 
—but which looks beyond the bounds of the neighbour- 
hood, and of the nation, with warm concern for the 
interests of the whole family of man. This spirit is 
a promise to the world infinitely brighter than was 
given by the highest intellectual culture of antiquity. 
This principle is still weak, indeed, even in the most 
favoured countries. In our own, it has not yet been 
strong enough to make us recognize in the Negro and 

T44 


THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN = 145 


the Indian our brethren, with rights as sacred, and 
souls as precious, as our own. Still, this spirit of 
brotherhood, of friendship, or humanity, is at work 
throughout Christendom, and thence throughout the 
world. 

Jesus Christ, Brother, Friend and Saviour, p. 997. 


112. The Inspiring Aid of Our Fellow Beings 


Man is strong, not by exercising unaided energy; 
but he grows in strength, in proportion as he can 
gather and turn to use the energies of other beings. 
We see an illustration of this in all common affairs. 
The mightiest operations of man are performed, not 
by his single arm, but by availing himself of the forces 
of nature, of wind, fire, steam, and mechanic powers. 
His strength multiplies itself by applying, and thus 
making his own, the strength of countless other agents. 

The same truth is illustrated, in a higher form, in 
the realm of duty and religion. When I resolve on 
seeking spiritual improvement, do I accomplish my end 
by lonely efforts of my own will, however often re- 
newed? Certainly not! I avail myself of incentives, 
guidance, encouragement, aid, from fellow-beings. I 
read what saints and sages have written, and strive 
to infuse their thoughts and spirit into my own soul. 
I recall the examples of the devout and disinterested, 
the heroic, and humane. I associate with the excel- 
lent and wise, who live around me. I add to private 
intercourse and friendship the public means of reli- 
gious and moral culture, worship with the congregation, 
communion at Christ’s table, concert in deeds of char- 
ity. In a word, I strive to grow in goodness, by 


1446 THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN 


absorbing and assimilating, and so making my own, the 
goodness and wisdom of my race. What immense 
help do such influences afford me! How continually 
when my mind is dull and languid, do the thoughts, 
tones, looks of fellow-men, kindle a new flame within! 
How repeatedly, when my purpose faints and flags, 
does a cheering word, or bright example, revive my 
sinking energy! Facts of this kind are of such con- 
stant occurrence, that no one can dispute them. And 
they clearly reveal the nature of the power which man 
exerts in moulding his own character. It is the power 
of exalting and perfecting it, by using the inspiring aid 
of fellow-beings. 


Life a Divine Gift, p. 973. 
113. How Christianity Differs from Society 


Christianity teaches us to feel ourselves members 
of the whole human family; society, to make or keep 
ourselves members of some favored caste. Chris- 
tianity calls us to unite ourselves with others; society, 
to separate ourselves from them. Christianity 
teaches us to raise others; society, to rise above them. 
Christianity calls us to narrow the space between our- 
selves and our inferiors by communicating to them, 
as we have ability, what is most valuable in our own 
minds; society tells us to leave them to their degrada- 
tion. Christianity summons us to employ superior 
ability, if such we have, as a means of wider and more 
beneficent action on the world; society suggests that 
these are a means of personal elevation. Christianity 
teaches us that what is peculiar in our lot or our 


THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN | 147 


acquisitions is of little worth in comparison with what 
we possess in common with our race; society teaches us 
to cling to what is peculiar as our highest honor and 
most precious possession. Fraternal union, sympathy, 
aid, is the spirit of Christianity; exclusiveness is the 
spirit of the world. And this spirit is not confined to 
what is called the highest class. It burns, perhaps, 
more intensely in those who are seeking than in those 
who occupy the eminences of social life. It is a dis- 
position to undervalue those who want what we 
possess, to narrow our sympathies to one or another 
class, to forget the great bond of humanity. ‘This 
spirit of exclusiveness triumphs over the spirit of 
Christianity, and, through its prevalence, the great 
work given to every human being, which is to improve 
his less favored fellow-being, is slighted. The sublime 
sphere of usefulness is little occupied. A spirit of 
rivalry, jealousy, envy, selfish competition, supplants 
the spirit of mutual interest, the respect, support, and 
aid, by which Christianity proposes to knit mankind 
into a universal brotherhood. .. . 


Life, p. 462. 


114. Our Membership in the Great Human Family 
and Partnership in its Fortunes. 


I am a living member of the great family of all 
souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without 
diffusing good or evil around me through an ever- 
enlarging sphere. I belong to this family. I am 
bound to it by vital bonds. I am always exerting an 
influence upon it. I can hardly perform an act that is 


148 THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN 


confined in its consequences to myself. Others are af- 
fected by what I am, and say, and do. So that a single 
act of mine may spread and spread in widening circles, 
through a nation or humanity. ‘Through my vice I in- 
tensify the taint of vice throughout the universe. 
Through my misery I make multitudes sad. On the 
other hand, every development of my virtue makes me 
an ampler blessing to my race. Every new truth that 
I gain makes me a brighter light to humanity. JI am 
organically connected with the great family of the 
universal parent. Plainly then it is for my happiness 
that this family should be watched over and should 
prosper. 

My happiness is manifestly bound up with and flows 
from the happiness of those around; and thus the Di- 
vine kindness to others is essentially kindness to my- 
self. This is no theory; it is the fact confirmed by all 
experience. Every day we receive perpetual blessings 
from the progress of our race. We are enlightened, 
refined, elevated, through the studies, discoveries, and 
arts of countless persons, whom we have never seen, 
and of whom we have never even heard. Daily we 
enjoy conveniences, pleasures, and means of health 
and culture, through advancement in science and art, 
made in the most distant regions. And in so far as 
we possess elevated, disinterested, and holy charac- 
ters, or enlarged intelligence, have not these been 
cherished and encouraged by the examples, writings, 
deeds, and lives of far-spread fellow-beings, through 
all ages and nations? How much would each of us 
assuredly be advanced in happiness, wisdom, virtue, 
were the community around us—were all the persons 


THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN _ 149 


with whom we hold intercourse—more humane and 
more heavenly! 


The Father’s Love for Persons, p. 956. 


115. The Moral Equivalence of Men amid 
Diversities of Gifts and Fortune 


It is freely granted that there are innumerable di- 
versities among men; but be it remembered, they are 
ordained to bind men together, and not to subdue one 
to the other; ordained to give means and occasions of 
mutual aid, and to carry forward each and all, so that 
the good of all is equally intended in this distribution 
of various gifts. Be it also remembered, that these 
diversities among men are as nothing in comparison 
with the attributes in which they agree; and it is this 
which constitutes their essential quality. All men 
have the same power of conscience, and all are equally 
made for indefinite improvement of these divine fac- 
ulties, and for the happiness to be found in their vir- 
tuous use. Who, that comprehends these gifts, does 
not see that the diversities of the race vanish before 
them? Let it be added, that the natural advantages 
which distinguish one man from another, are so be- 
stowed as to counterbalance one another, and bestowed 
without regard to rank or condition in life. Who- 
ever surpasses in one endowment is inferior in others. 
Even genius, the greatest gift, is found in union with 
strange infirmities, and often places its possessors be- 
low ordinary men in the conduct of life. Great learn- 
ing is often put to shame by the mother-wit and keen 
good sense of uneducated men. Nature, indeed, pays 
no heed to birth or condition in bestowing her favors. 


150 THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN 


The noblest spirits sometimes grow up in the obscur- 
est spheres. ‘hus equal are men; and among these 
equals, who can substantiate his claim to make others 
his property, his tools, the mere instruments of his 
private interest and gratification? Let this claim be- 
gin, and where will it stop? If one may assert it, 
why not all? Among these partakers of the same 
rational and moral nature, who can make good a right 
over others, which others may not establish over him- 
self? Does he insist on superior strength of body or 
mind? Who of us has no superior in one or the 
other of these endowments? Is it sure that the slave 
or the slave’s child may not surpass his master in in- 
tellectual energy, or in moral worth? MHas nature 
conferred distinctions which tell us plainly who shall 
be owners and who be owned? Who of us can un- 
blushingly lift his head and say that God has written 
‘Master’ there? or who can show the word “Slave” 
engraven on his brother’s brow? ‘The equality of na- 
ture makes slavery a wrong. Nature’s seal is affixed 
to no instrument by which property in a single human 
being is conveyed. 


On Slavery, p. 693. 


116. Treat Men as Men and They will not 
Prove Wild Beasts 


When I am told that society can only subsist by rob- 
bing men of their dearest rights, my reason is as much 
insulted as if I were gravely taught that effects re- 
quire no cause, or that it is the nature of yonder beau- 
tiful stream to ascend these mountains, or to return to 
its source. ‘The doctrine that violence, oppression, in- 


THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN J 1s1 


humanity, is an essential element of society, is so re- 
volting, that, did I believe it, I would say, let society 
perish, let man and his works be swept away, and the 
earth be abandoned to the brutes. Better that the 
globe should be tenanted by brutes than brutalized 
men. No! it is safe to be just, to respect men’s rights, 
to treat our neighbors as ourselves; and any doctrine 
hostile to this is born of the Evil One. Men do not 
need to be crushed. A wise kindness avails with them 
more than force. Even the insane are disarmed by 
kindness. Once the madhouse, with its dens, fetters, 
strait-waistcoats, whips, horrible punishments, at 
which humanity now shudders and the blood boils with 
indignation, was thought just as necessary as slavery 
is now deemed at the South. But we have learned, 
at last, that human nature, even when robbed ‘of 
reason, can be ruled, calmed, restored, by wise kind- 
ness; that it was only maddened and made more des- 
perate by the chains imposed to keep it from outrage 
and murder. ‘Treat men as men, and they will not 
prove wild beasts. We first rob them of their hu- 
manity, and then chain them because they are not 
human. 
On Emancipation, p. 922. 


117. The Christian Should not Discriminate on 
Grounds of Race or Social Rank 


The great teaching of Christianity is, that we must 
recognize and respect human nature in all its forms 
in the poorest, most ignorant, most fallen. We must 
look beneath “the flesh” to the “spirit.” The spir- 
itual principle in man is what entitles him to our 


192, THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN 


brotherly regard. To be just to this is the great in- 
junction of our religion. To overlook this, on account 
of condition or color, is to violate the great Christian 
law. We have reason to think that it is one design of 
God, in appointing the vast diversities of human con- 
dition, to put to the test, and to bring out most dis- 
tinctly, the principle of spiritual love. It is wisely 
ordered that human nature is not set before us in a 
few forms of beauty, magnificence, and outward glory. 
To be dazzled and attracted by these would be no sign 
of reverence for what is interior and spiritual in hu- 
man nature. To lead us to discern and love this, we 
are brought into connection with fellow-creatures 
whose outward circumstances are repulsive. To rec- 
ognize our own spiritual nature and God’s image in 
these humble forms, to recognize as brethren those 
who want all outward distinctions, is the chief way in 
which we are to manifest the spirit of him who came 
to raise the fallen and to save the lost. He who can- 
not see a brother, a child of God, a man possessing all 
the rights of humanity, under a skin darker than his 
own, wants the vision of a Christian. He worships 
the outward. The spirit is not yet revealed to him. 
To look unmoved on the degradation and wrongs of a 
fellow-creature, because burned by a fiercer sun, proves 
us strangers to Justice and love in those universal 
forms which characterize Christianity. The greatest 
of all distinctions, the only enduring one, is moral 
goodness, virtue, religion. Outward distinctions can- 
not add to the dignity of this. ‘The wealth of worlds 
is “‘not sufficient for a burnt-offering”’ on its altar. A 
being capable of this is invested by God with solemn 


THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN - 153 


claims on his fellow-creatures. To exclude millions 
of such beings from our sympathy, because of outward 
disadvantages, proves that, in whatever else we sur- 
pass them, we are not their superiors in Christian 
virtue. 

The spirit of Christianity, I have said, is distin- 
guished by universality. It is universal justice. It re- 
spects all the rights of all beings. It suffers no be- 
ing, however obscure, to be wronged, without con- 
demning the wrong-doer. Impartial, uncompromis- 
ing, fearless, it screens no favorites, is dazzled by no 
power, spreads its shield over the weakest, summons 
the mightiest to its bar, and speaks to the conscience 
in tones under which the mightiest have quailed. It 
is also universal love, comprehending those that are 
near and those that are far off, the high and the low, 
the rich and poor, descending to the fallen, and espe- 
cially binding itself to those in whom human nature 
is trampled under foot. 


On Slavery, p. 691. 


MOTIVES AND AUGURIES 
OF SOCIAL REFORM 


118. The Growing Recognition of Man’s Duty to 
Man 


In our own times, the character of Jesus is exerting 
more conspicuously its true and glorious power. We 
have, indeed, little cause for boasting. The great 
features of society are still hard and selfish. The 
worth of a human being is a mystery still hid from an 
immense majority, and the most enlightened among 
us have not looked beneath the surface of this great 
truth. Still there is at this moment an interest in 
human nature, a sympathy with human suffering, a 
sensibility to the abuses and evils which deform society, 
a faith in man’s capacity of progress, a desire of human 
progress, a desire to carry to every human being the 
means of rising to a better condition and a higher 
virtue, such as has never been witnessed before. 
Amidst the mercenariness which would degrade men 
into tools, and the ambition which would tread them 
down in its march toward power, there is still a respect 
for man as man, a recognition of his rights, a thirst 
for his elevation, which is the surest proof of a higher 
comprehension of Jesus Christ, and the surest augury 
of a happier state of human affairs. Humanity and 
justice are crying out in more and more piercing tones 
for the suffering, the enslaved, the ignorant, the poor, 

154 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM | 155 


the prisoner, the orphan, the long-neglected seaman, 
the benighted heathen. I do not refer merely to new 
institutions for humanity, for these are not the most 
unambiguous proofs of progress. We see in the com- 
mon consciousness of society, in the general feelings of 
individuals, traces of a more generous recognition of 
what man owestoman. ‘The glare of outward distinc- 
tion is somewhat dimmed. The prejudices of caste 
and rank are abated. A man is seen to be worth more 
than his wardrobe or his title. It begins to be under- 
stood that a Christian is to be a philanthropist, and 
that, in truth, the essence of Christianity is a spirit of 
martyrdom in the cause of mankind. 


The Philanthropist, p. 601. 


119. Reverence for Man must Preface Genuine 
Social Reform 


I have felt and continually insisted, that a 
new reverence for man was essential to the cause of 
social reform. As long as men regard one another 
as they now do, that is as little better than the brutes, 
they will continue to treat one another brutally. 
Each will strive, by craft or skill, to make others his 
tools. ‘There can be no spirit of brotherhood, no true 
peace, any farther than men come to understand their 
affinity with and relation to God and the infinite pur- 
pose for which he gave them life. As yet these ideas 
are treated as a kind of spiritual romance; and the 
teacher who really expects men to see in themselves 
and one another the children of God, is smiled at as 
a visionary. ‘The reception of this plainest truth of 
Christianity would revolutionize society, and create 


156 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


relations among men not dreamed of at the present 
day. A union would spring up, compared with which 
our present friendships would seem estrangements. 
Men would know the import of the word Brother, as 
yet nothing but a word to multitudes. None of us can 
conceive the change of manners, the new courtesy and 
sweetness, the mutual kindness, deference, and sympa- 
thy, the life and energy of efforts for social melioration, 
which are to spring up, in proportion as man shall pen- 
etrate beneath the body to the spirit, and shall learn 
what the lowest human being is. ‘hen insults, 
wrongs, and oppressions, now hardly thought of, will 
give a deeper shock than we receive from crimes, which 
the laws punish with death. ‘Then man will be sacred 
in man’s sight; and to injure him will be regarded as 
open hostility towards God. 
Introductory Remarks, p. 7. 


120. Sympathy with the Suffering; Loyalty to 
Humanity 


A nation, blessed as we are with free institutions, 
should feel that it holds these not for itself only, but 
for mankind, and that all oppressive establishments 
must fall before their influence, if it will but give 
proof of their tendency and power to exalt a people 
in spirit, in virtue, and in condition. In truth, this 
close connection of different communities should lead 
us as individuals, as well as in our associated character, 
to interest ourselves in the cause of humanity through 
the whole earth. The present is an age of great 
movements, of great perils, and still of glorious pros- 
pects, and one in which there is a power of sympathy, as 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM © 157 


well as means of co-operation and extensive agency, 
never known before. In such an age, we should not 
shut up ourselves in ourselves, or look on the struggles 
of nations with a vain curiosity, but should watch the 
changes of the world with profound concern, and re- 
spond to great principles, and cheer philanthropic ef- 
forts, wherever manifested. We should feel, I think, 
that the time is approaching in which Christian philan- 
thropy is to act a new part on the theatre of human 
affairs, is to unite men of different countries in the same 
great work of rolling away abuses, of staying wide- 
spread evils, vindicating private rights, establishing 
public peace, and exalting the condition of the ignorant. 
We should do what we can to hasten this era. Our 
children should be educated on more generous prin- 
ciples, and taught to make new sacrifices to the cause 
of their fellow-creatures. Every age teaches its own 
lesson. The lesson of this age is that of sympathy 
with the suffering, and of devotion to the progress of 
the whole human race. 


Life, p. 575: 
121. Present Civilization Hostile to Christianity 


My great interest is in human nature, and in 
the working classes as its most numerous represent- 
atives. To those who look on this nature with con- 
tempt or utter distrust, such language may seem a 
mere form, or may be construed as a sign of the pre- 
dominance of imagination and feeling over the judg- 
ment. No matter. The pity of these sceptics I can 
return. ‘Their wonder at my credulity cannot surpass 
the sorrowful astonishment with which I look on their 


158 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


indifference to the fortunes of their race. In spite of 
all their doubts and scoffs human nature is still most 
dear tome. When I behold it manifested in its perfect 
proportions in Jesus Christ, I cannot but revere it as 
the true temple of the Divinity. When I see it as 
revealed in the great and good of all times, I bless 
God for those multiplied and growing proofs of its 
high destiny. When I see it bruised, beaten down, 
stifled by ignorance and vice, by oppression, injustice, 
and grinding toil, I weep for it, and feel that every man 
should be ready to suffer for its redemption. I do 
and I must hope for its progress. But in saying this, 
I am not blind to its immediate dangers. I am not 
sure that dark cloud and desolating storms are not 
even now gathering over the world. When we 
look back on the mysterious history of the human race, 
we see that Providence has made use of fearful revo- 
lutions as the means of sweeping away the abuses of 
ages, and of bringing forward mankind to their present 
improvement. Whether such revolutions may not be 
in store for our own times, [ know not. ‘The present 
civilization of the Christian world presents much to 
awaken doubt and apprehension. It stands in direct 
hostility to the great ideas of Christianity. It is 
selfish, mercenary, sensual. Such a civilization cannot, 
must not, endure for ever. How it is to be supplanted, 
I know not. I hope, however, that it is not doomed, 
like the old Roman civilization, to be quenched in 
blood. I trust that the works of ages are not to be 
laid low by violence, rapine, and the all-devouring 
sword. I trust that the existing social state contains 
in its bosom something better than it has yet unfolded. 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 159 


I trust that a brighter future is to come, not from the 
desolation, but from gradual, meliorating changes 
of the present. Among the changes to which I look 
for the salvation of the modern world, one of the 
chief is the intellectual and moral elevation of the labor- 
ing class. The impulses which are to reform and 
quicken society are probably to come, not from its more 
conspicuous, but from its obscurer divisions; and 
among these I see with joy new wants, principles, and 
aspirations beginning to unfold themselves. 


The Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 05. 


122. The Rise of Labor the Master Movement of 
Our Age 


Whoever studies modern history with any care, 
must discern in it a steady, growing movement towards 
one most interesting result,—I mean towards the 
elevation of the laboring class of society. ‘This 1s 
not a recent, accidental turn of human affairs. We can 
trace its beginning in the feudal times, and its slow 
advances in subsequent periods, until it has become 
the master movement of our age. Is it not plain that 
those who toil with their hands, and whose productive 
industry is the spring of all wealth, are rising from 
the condition of beasts of burden, to which they were 
once reduced, to the consciousness, intelligence, self- 
respect, and proper happiness of men? Is it not the 
strong tendency of our times to diffuse among the 
many the improvements once confined to the few? He 
who overlooks this has no comprehension of the great 
work of Providence, or of the most signal feature of 
his times; and is this an age for efforts to extend and 


160 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


perpetuate an institution, the very object of which is 
to keep down the laborer, and to make him a machine 
for another’s gratification? It is true that much re- 
mains to be done for the laboring class in the most 
favored regions; but the intelligence already spread 
through this class is an earnest of a brighter day, of the 
most glorious revolution in history, of the elevation of 
the mass of men to the dignity of human beings. 

It is the great mission of this country to forward this 
revolution, and never was a sublimer work committed 
to anation. Our mission is to elevate society through 
all its conditions, to secure to every human being the 
means of progress, to substitute the government of 
equal laws for that of irresponsible individuals, to 
prove that, under popular institutions, the people may 
be carried forward, that the multitude who toil are 
capable of enjoying the noblest blessings of the social 
state. The prejudice, that labor is a degradation, 
one of the worst prejudices handed down from bar- 
barous ages, is to receive here a practical refutation. 
The power of liberty to raise up the whole people, 
this is the great idea on which our institutions rest, 
and which is to be wrought out in our history. Shall 
a nation having such a mission abjure it, and even fight 
against the progress which it is specially called to pro- 
mote? 


On the Annexation of Texas, p. 767-768. 


123. Poverty and its Wretchedness must Be 
Eliminated 


I see a silently growing purpose, that Christian 
communities shall not always be deformed and 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 161 


disgraced by the presence of an ignorant, destitute, 
miserable horde; that in the bosom of civilization there 
shall no longer exist a more wretched, degraded portion 
of human beings than can be found in savage life. 
This horrible contrast of condition, which all large 
cities present, has existed too long. Shall it endure 
for ever? My friends, we all, as well as others, have 
hitherto been dreadfully insensible to this sorest evil 
under the sun. Long use has hardened us to it. We 
have lived comfortably, perhaps luxuriously, in our 
dwellings, whilst within a stone’s throw were fellow- 
creatures, the children of our Father in heaven, as 
nobly borne and gifted as ourselves, in whose counte- 
nances might be read brutal ignorance, hopeless mis- 
ery, and degrading vice. We have passed them in the 
street, not only without a tear but without a thought. 
Oh, how seldom has a pang shot through our hearts 
at the sight of our ruined fellow-creatures! Shall this 
insensibility continue for ever? Shall not a new love 
succeed to this iron hardness of heart? Do not call 
the evil remediless. Sure I am, that at this moment 
there is enough of piety, philanthropy, and moral 
power in this community to work deep changes in the 
poorer classes, could these energies, now scattered 
and slumbering, be brought to bear wisely and per- 
severingly on the task. Shall we decline this work? 
If so, we decline the noblest labor of philanthropy. 
If so, we must suffer, and we ought to suffer. Society 
ought to be troubled, to be shaken, yea convulsed, until 
its solemn debt to the ignorant and poor be paid. 
Poor there will be, but they need not, must not, exist 
as a degraded, hopeless caste. ‘hey need not, must 


162 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


not, be cut off from the brotherhood of humanity. 
Their children must not be left to inherit and propagate 
their crimes and woes. To put an end to such a class 
is the highest office of Christian philanthropy. 

On The Ministry to the Poor, p. 86. 


124. The Contempt Shown Poverty Engenders 
Self-Contempt in the Poor 


What, then, are the moral influences of poverty, its 
influences on character, which deserve our chief atten- 
tion? As one of its most fatal effects, I would ob- 
serve, in the first place, that it impairs, often destroys, 
self-respect. I know, and rejoice to know, that the in- 
stitutions of this country do much to counteract this 
influence of poverty; but still it exists and works fre- 
quent debasement. It is hard for any of us to inter- 
pret justly our own nature, and how peculiarly hard 
for the poor! Uninstructed in the import and dignity 
of their rational and moral powers, they naturally 
measure themselves by their outward rank. Living 
amidst the worshippers of wealth, they naturally feel 
as if degraded by the want of it. They read in the 
looks, tones, and manners of the world the evidences 
of being regarded as an inferior race, and want inward 
force to repel this cruel, disheartening falsehood. 
They hear the word respectable confined to other con- 
ditions, and the word Jow applied to their own. Now, 
habitual subjection to slight or contempt is crushing to 
the spirit. It is exceedingly hard for a human being 
to comprehend and appreciate himself amidst outward 
humiliation. There is no greater man than he who 
is true to himself when all around deny and forsake 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM _ 163 


him. Can we wonder that the poor, thus abandoned, 
should identify themselves with their lot,—that in 
their rags they should see the sign of inward as well 
as outward degradation? 

The Ministry to the Poor, p. 75. 


125. The Self-Indulgence of the Rich Demoralizes 
the Poor 


What is the great lesson which the more prosperous 
classes teach to the poorer? Not self-denial, not 
spirituality, not the great Christian truth that human 
happiness lies in the triumphs of the mind over the 
body, in inward force and life. The poorer are taught 
by the richer that the greatest good is ease, indulgence. 
The voice which descends from the prosperous con- 
tradicts the lessons of Christ and of sound philosophy. 
It is the sensuality, the earthliness of those who give 
the tone to public sentiment, which is chargeable with 
a vast amount of the intemperance of the poor. How 
is the poor man to resist intemperance? Only by a 
moral force, an energy of will, a principle of self-denial 
in his soul. And where is this taught him? Does a 
higher morality come to him from those whose con- 
dition makes them his superiors? The great inquiry 
which he bears among the better educated is, What 
shall we eat and drink, and wherewithal shall we be 
clothed? Unceasing struggles for outward, earthly, 
sensual good, constitute the chief activity which he 
sees around him. To suppose that the poorer classes 
should receive lessons of luxury and self-indulgence 
from the more prosperous, and should yet resist the 
most urgent temptations to excess, is to expect from 


164 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


them a moral force in which we feel ourselves to be 
sadly wanting. In their hard conflicts, how little of 
life-giving truth, of elevating thought, of heavenly as- 
piration, do they receive from those above them in 
worldly condition! 

On Temperance, p. 104. 


126. Looking on Luxury, the Poor are Incited to 
Envy and Hatred 


I proceed to another unhappy influence exerted on 
the poor. ‘They live in the sight and in the midst of 
innumerable indulgences and gratifications which are. 
placed beyond their reach. Their connection with 
the affluent, though not close enough for spiritual com- 
munication, is near enough to inflame appetites, de- 
sires, wants, which cannot be satisfied. From their 
cheerless rooms they look out on the abodes of lux- 
ury. At their cold, coarse meal, they hear the equi- 
page conveying others to tables groaning under plenty, 
crowned with sparkling wines, and fragrant with the 
delicacies of every clime. Fainting with toil, they 
meet others unburdened, as they think, with a labor or 
a care. ‘They feel that all life’s prizes have fallen to 
others. Hence burning desire. Hence brooding dis- 
content. Hence envy and hatred. Hence crime, Jus- 
tified in a measure to their own minds, by what seem to 
them the unjust and cruel inequalities of social life. 
Very seldom does a distinct, authentic voice of wisdom 
come to them from the high places of society, telling 
them that riches are not happiness, and that a felicity 
which riches cannot buy is within reach of all. Wealth- 
worship is the spirit of the prosperous, and this is 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 165 


the strongest possible inculcation of discontent and 
crime on the poor. The rich satisfy themselves with 
giving alms to the needy. They think little of more 
fatal gifts, which they perpetually bestow. They 
think little that their spirit and lives, their self- 
indulgence and earthliness, their idolatry of outward 
prosperity, and their contempt of inferior conditions, 
are perpetually teaching the destitute that there is but 
one good on earth, namely, property,—the very good 
in which the poor have no share. They little think 
that by these influences they do much to inflame, em- 
bitter, and degrade the minds of the poor, to fasten 
them to the earth, to cut off their communication with 
Heaven. 
Ministry to the Poor, p. 77. 


127. The Working Man should not Emulate the 
Fashionable and Idle Rich 


Fashion is a poor vocation. Its creed, that idle- 
ness is a privilege, and work a disgrace, is among the 
deadliest errors. Without depth of thought, or ear- 
nestness of feeling, or strength of purpose, living an 
unreal life, sacrificing substance to show, substituting 
the factitious for the natural, mistaking a crowd for 
society, finding its chief pleasure in ridicule, and ex- 
hausting its ingenuity ir expedients for killing time, 
fashion is among the last influences under which a 
human being, who respects himself or who compre- 
hends the great end of life, would desire to be placed. 
I use strong language, because I would combat the 
disposition, too common in the laboring mass, to re- 
gard what is called the upper class with envy or ad- 


166 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


miration. This disposition manifests itself among 
them in various forms. ‘Thus, when one of their 
number prospers, he is apt to forget his old acquaint- 
ance, and, to work his way, if possible, into a more 
fashionable caste. As far, indeed, as he extends his 
acquaintance among the intelligent, refined, generous, 
and truly honorable, he makes a substantial improve- 
ment of his condition; but if, as is too often the case, 
he is admitted by way of favor into a circle which has 
few claims beyond those of greater luxury and show, 
and which bestows on him a patronizing, condescend- 
ing notice, in exchange for his old, honorable influence 
among his original associates, he does any thing but 
rise. Such is not the elevation I desire for the la- 
borer. I do not desire him to struggle into another 
rank. Let him not be a servile copyist of other 
classes, but aim at something higher than has yet been 
realized in any body of men. Let him not associate 
the idea of dignity or honor with certain modes of 
living, or certain outward connections. I would have 
every man stand on his own ground, and take his place 
among men according to personal endowments and 
worth, and not according to outward appendages; and 
I would have every member of the community fur- 
nished with such means of improvement, that, if faith- 
ful to himself, he may need no outward appendage to 
attract the respect of all around him. 
Elevation of the Laboring Classes, p. 40. 


128. The Need for Peace Makers in an Age of Strife 


There is another dark feature of this age. It is 
the spirit of collision, contention, discord, which 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM ~~ 167 


breaks forth in religion, in politics, in business, in 
private affairs,—a result and necessary issue of the self- 
ishness which prompts the endless activity of life. 
The mighty forces which are this moment acting in 
society are not and cannot be in harmony, for they 
are not governed by love. ‘They jar; they are dis- 
cordant. Life now has little music in it. It is not 
only on the field of battle that men fight. They fight 
on the exchange. Business is war, a conflict of skill, 
management, and, too often, fraud; to snatch the prey 
from our neighbor is the end of all this stir. Religion 
1s war; Christians, forsaking their one Lord, gather 
under various standards to gain victory for their sects. 
Politics are war, breaking the whole people into fierce 
and unscrupulous parties, which forget their country 
in conflicts for office and power. ‘The age needs noth- 
ing more than peace-makers, men of serene, command- 
ing virtue, to preach in life and word the gospel of 
human brotherhood, to allay the fires of jealousy and 
hate. 
Dies Presenis da geupe n70. 


129. The Worldliness of Wealth and Rank 


In every community there are many who hold their 
fellow-creatures in bondage for gain,—for mere gain. 
They perpetuate this odious system not reluctantly, 
but from choice; not because the public safety compels 
them, as they think, to act the part of despots, but 
because they love despotism, and count money their su- 
preme good. Provided they can be supported in ease 
and indulgence, can be pampered and enriched, they 
care not for the means. ‘They care not what wrongs 


168 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


or stripes are inflicted, what sweat is extorted, what 
powers of the immortal soul are crushed. I refer to 
the conservative class, to those who are tremblingly 
alive to the spirit of innovation now abroad in 
the world, who have little or no faith in human pro- 
gress, who are anxious to secure what is now gained 
rather than to gain more, to whom the watch- 
word of the times, Reform, sounds like a knell. 
Among these are to be found individuals who, from 
no benevolent interest in society, but simply be- 
cause they have drawn high prizes in the lottery of 
life, are unwilling that the most enormous abuses 
should be touched, lest the established order of things, 
so propitious to themselves, should be disturbed. A 
palsying, petrifying order, keeping things as they are, 
seems to them the ideal of a perfect community, and 
they have no patience with the rude cry of reformers 
for the restoration of human beings to their long-lost 
rights. Such are to be found in what is called the 
highest class of society, that is, among the rich and 
fashionable; and the cause is obvious. The rich and 
fashionable belong to the same caste with the slave- 
holder; and men are apt to sympathize with their own 
caste more readily than with those beneath them. 
The slave is too low, too vulgar, to awaken interest 
in those who abhor vulgarity more than oppression and 
crime, and who found all their self-admiration on the 
rank they occupy in the social scale. Far be it from 
me to charge on the rich or fashionable, as a class, this 
moral degradation; but among them are the worship- 
pers of high degree, who would think their dignity 
soiled by touching the cause of a menial, degraded 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 169 


race, and who load its advocates with ridicule and 
scorn. Gain is their god, and they sacrifice on this 
altar without compunction the rights and happiness 
of their fellow-creatures. To such, the philanthropy 
which would break every chain is fanaticism, or a pre- 
tence. Nothing in their own souls helps them to com- 
prehend the fervor of men who feel for the wronged, 
and who hazard property and life in exposing the 
wrong. This, however, cannot surprise us. Our 
present civilization is characterized and tainted by a 
devouring greediness of wealth; and a cause which as- 
serts right against wealth must stir up bitter opposi- 
tion, especially in cities where this divinity is most 
adored. ‘The passion for gain is everywhere sapping 
pure and generous feeling, and everywhere raises up 
bitter foes against any reform which may threaten 
to turn aside a stream of wealth. I sometimes feel as 
if a great social revolution were necessary to break 
up our present mercenary civilization, in order that 
Christianity, now repelled by the almost universal 
worldliness, may come into new contact with the soul, 
and may reconstruct society after its own pure and 
disinterested principles. 


The Abolitionists, p. 747. 


130. The Great Enemies of Society are not in 
[ts Poorer Ranks 


The prosperous part of society are, of course, par- 
ticularly liable to the fear of which I have spoken. 
They see danger especially in the extension of power 
and freedom of all kinds to the laboring classes of 
society. They look with a jealous eye on attempts 


170 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


to elevate these, though one would think that to im- 
prove a man was the surest way to disarm his violence. 
They talk of agrarianism. ‘They dread a system of 
universal pillage. ‘They dread a conspiracy of the 
needy against the rich. Now the manual laborer has 
burdens enough to bear without the load of groundless 
suspicion or reproach. It ought to be understood that 
the great enemies to society are not found in its poorer 
ranks. [he mass may, indeed, be used as tools; but 
the stirring and guiding powers of insurrection are 
found above. Communities fall by the vices of the 
prosperous ranks. We are referred to Rome, which 
was robbed of her liberties and reduced to the most 
degrading vassalage by the lawlessness of the Plebe- 
ians, who sold themselves to demagogues, and gave 
the republic into the hands of a dictator. But what 
made the Plebeians an idle, dissolute, rapacious horde? 
It was the system of universal rapine which, under 
the name of conquest, had been carried on for ages 
by Patricians, by all the powers of the state,—a sys- 
tem which glutted Rome with the spoils of the pil- 
laged world; which fed her population without labor, 
from the public treasures, and corrupted them by pub- 
lic shows. It was this which helped to make the me- 
tropolis of the earth a sink of crime and pollution such 
as the world had never known. It was time that the 
grand robber-state should be cast down from her guilty 
eminence. Her brutish populace, which followed 
Cesar’s car with shouts, was not worse than the 
venal, crouching senate which registered his decrees. 
Let not the poor bear the burden of the rich. At 
this moment we are groaning over the depressed and 


MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM © 171 


dishonored state of our country; and who, let me ask, 
have shaken its credit, and made so many of its in- 
stitutions bankrupt? The poor or the rich? Whence 
is it that the incomes of the widow, the orphan, the 
aged, have been narrowed, and multitudes on both 
sides of the ocean brought to the brink of want? Is it 
from an outbreak of popular fury? Is it from gangs 
of thieves sprung from the mob? We know the 
truth, and it shows us where the great danger to prop- 
erty lies. 
The Present Age, p. 169. 


131. The Social Revolution must not Come 


by Violence 


That a higher order of ideas or principles is begin- 
ning to be unfolded; that a wider philanthropy is be- 
ginning to triumph over the distinctions of ranks and 
nations; that a new feeling of what is due to the ig- 
norant, poor, and depraved, has sprung up; that the 
right of every human being to such an education as 
shall call forth his best faculties, and train him more 
and more to control himself, is recognized as it never 
was before; and that government is more and more 
regarded as intended not to elevate the few, but to 
guard the rights of all; that these great revolutions 
in principle have commenced and are spreading, who 
can deny? and to me they are prophetic of an improved 
condition of human nature and human affairs.—O, that 
this melioration might be accomplished without blood! 
As a Christian, I feel a misgiving, when I rejoice in 
good, however great, for which this fearful price 
has been paid. In truth, a good so won is necessarily 


172 MOTIVES OF SOCIAL REFORM 


imperfect and generally transient. War may sub- 
vert a despotism, but seldom builds up better institu- 
tions. Even when joined, as in our own history, with 
high principles, it inflames and leaves behind it passions 
which make liberty a feverish conflict of jealous parties, 
and which expose a people to the tyranny of faction 
under the forms of freedom. Few things impair men’s 
reverence for human nature more than war; and did I 
not see other and holier influences than the sword 
working out the regeneration of the race, I should 
indeed despair. 
Honor due to all Men, p. 72. 


THE FAITH OF PROGRESS 
132. The Faith of Progress 


Were I to look on the world as many do, were I to 
see in it a maze without a plan, a whirl of changes 
without aim, a stage for good and evil to fight with- 
out an issue, an endless motion without progress, a 
world where sin and idolatry are to triumph for ever, 
and the oppressor’s rod never to be broken, I should 
turn from it with sickness of heart, and care not how 
soon the sentence of its destruction were fulfilled. 
History and philosophy plainly show to me in human 
nature the foundation and promise of a better era, 
and Christianity concurs with these. The thought 
of a higher condition of the world was the secret fire 
which burned in the soul of the great Founder of our 
religion, and in his first followers. That he was to 
act on all future generations, that he was sowing a 
seed which was to grow up and spread its branches 
over all nations,—this great thought never forsook 
him in life and death. That under Christianity a 
civilization has grown up containing in itself nobler 
elements than are found in earlier forms of society, who 
can deny? Great ideas and feelings, derived from 
this source, are now at work. Amidst the prevalence 
of crime and selfishness, there has sprung up in the 
human heart a sentiment or principle unknown in ear- 
lier ages, an enlarged and trustful philanthropy, which 

173 


174 THE FAITH OF PROGRESS 


recognizes the right of every human being, which is 
stirred by the terrible oppressions and corruptions of 
the world, and which does not shrink from conflict with 
evil in its worst forms. ‘There has sprung up, too, a 
faith, of which antiquity knew nothing, in the final vic- 
tory of truth and right, in the elevation of men to a 
clearer intelligence, to a more fraternal union, and to 
a purer worship. ‘This faith is taking its place among 
the great springs of human action, is becoming even a 
passion in more fervent spirits. I hail it as a prophecy 
which is to fulfil itself. A nature capable of such an 
aspiration cannot be degraded for ever. 
LNCURTESEnTIA Ge pall. 


133. Religion Alone can Offset the Poisonous 
By-Products of Civilization 


The need of religion is in no degree superseded by 
what is called the progress of society. I should say 
that civilization, so far from being able of itself to 
give moral strength and elevation, includes causes of 
degradation which nothing but the religious principle 
can withstand. It multiplies, undoubtedly, the com- 
forts and enjoyments of life; but in these I see sore 
trials and perils to the soul. These minister to the 
sensual element in human nature, to that part of our 
constitution which allies—and too often enslaves—us 
to the earth. Of consequence, civilization needs that 
proportional aid should be given to the spiritual ele- 
ment ‘in’ man, “ands L sknow. noty where atisisemto 
be found but in religion. Without this the civilized 
man, with all his properties and refinements, rises little 
in true dignity above the savage whom he disdains. 


THE FAITH OF PROGRESS 175 


You tell me of civilization, of its arts and sciences, 
as the sure instruments of human elevation. You tell 
me, how by these man masters and bends to his use 
the powers of nature. I know he masters them, but 
it is to become in turn their slave. He explores and 
cultivates the earth, but it is to grow more earthly. 
THe explores the hidden mine, but it is to forge him- 
self chains. He visits all regions, but therefore lives 
a stranger to his own soul. In the very progress of 
civilization I see the need of an antagonist principle to 
the senses, of a power to free man from matter, to re- 
call him from the outward to the inward world and 
religion alone is equal to so great a work. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 178. 


134. The Worship of Mammon and a Spirit of 
Materialism are Our Chief Dangers 


I confess I look round on civilized society with 
many fears, and with more and more earnest desire 
that a regenerating spirit from heaven, from religion, 
may descend upon and pervade it. I particularly fear 
that various causes are acting powerfully among our- 
selves to inflame and madden that enslaving and de- 
grading principle, the passion for property. For ex- 
ample, the absence of hereditary distinctions in our 
country gives prominence to the distinction of wealth, 
and holds up this as the chief prize to ambition. Add 
to this the epicurean, self-indulgent habits which our 
prosperity has multiplied, and which crave insatiably 
for enlarging wealth as the only means of gratification. 
This peril is increased by the spirit of our times, which 
is a spirit of commerce, industry, internal improve- 


176 THE FAITH OF PROGRESS 


ments, mechanical invention, political economy, and 
peace. Think not that I would disparage commerce, 
mechanical skill, and especially pacific connections 
among states. But there is danger that these bless- 
ings may by perversion issue in a slavish love of lucre. 
It seems to me that some of the objects which once 
moved men most powerfully are gradually losing their 
sway, and thus the mind is left more open to the excite- 
ment of wealth. For example, military distinction is 
taking the inferior place which it deserves; and the 
consequence will be, that the energy and ambition 
which have been exhausted in war will seek new direc- 
tions; and happy shall we be if they do not flow into 
the channel of gain. So I think that political eminence 
1s to be less and less coveted; and there is danger that 
the energies absorbed by it will be spent in seeking 
another kind of dominion,—the dominion of property. 
And if such be the result, what shall we gain by what is 
called the progress of society? What shall we gain by 
national peace if men, instead of meeting on the field 
of battle, wage with one another the more inglorious 
strife of dishonest and rapacious trafic? What shall 
we gain by the waning of political ambition if the in- 
trigues of the exchange take place of those of the 
cabinet, and private pomp and luxury be substituted 
for the splendor of public life? I am no foe to civ- 
ilization. J rejoice in its progress. But I mean to 
say that, without a pure religion to modify its tend- 
encies, to inspire and refine it, we shall be corrupted, 
not ennobled by it. It is the excellence of the religious 
principle, that it aids and carries forward civilization, 
extends science and arts, multiplies the conveniences 


THE FAITH OF PROGRESS whe 


and ornaments of life, and at the same time spoils 
them of their enslaving power, and even converts them 
into means and ministers of that spiritual freedom 
which, when left to themselves, they endanger and de- 
stroy. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 179. 


THE? MORAL LAW aIN POLITICS 


135. The Human Soul is Greater and More Sacred 
than the State 


The individual is not made for the state so much as 
the state for the individual. A man is not created 
for political relations as his highest end, but for in- 
definite spiritual progress, and is placed in political 
relations as the means of his progress. “The human 
soul is greater, more sacred, than the state, and must 
never be sacrificed to it. “The human soul is to out- 
live all earthly institutions. The distinction of na- 
tions is to pass away. ‘Thrones, which have stood for 
ages, are to meet the doom pronounced upon all man’s 
works. But the individual mind survives, and the ob- 
scurest subject, if true to God, will rise to a power 
never wielded by earthly potentates. A human be- 
ing is a member of the community, not as a limb is 
a member of the body, or as a wheel is a part of a 
machine, intended only to contribute to some general, 
joint result. He was-created, not to be merged in 
the whole, as a drop in the ocean, or as a particle of 
sand on the sea-shore, and to aid only in composing a 
mass. He is an ultimate being, made for his own 
perfection as the highest end, made to maintain an 
individual existence, and to serve others only as far as 
consists with his own virtue and progress. Hitherto 


governments have tended greatly to obscure this im- 
178 


AES MORALTEAW IN POLITICS 179 


portance of the individual, to depress him in his own 
eyes, to give him the idea of an outward interest 
more important than the invisible soul, and of an out- 
ward authority more sacred than the voice of God 
in his own secret conscience. Rulers have called the 
private man the property of the state, meaning gen- 
erally by the state themselves, and thus the many have 
been immolated to the few, and have even believed 
that this was their highest destination. These views 
cannot be too earnestly withstood. Nothing seems to 
me so needful as to give to the mind the consciousness, 
which governments have done so much to suppress, of 
its own separate worth. Let the individual feel that, 
through his immortality, he may concentrate in his own 
being a greater good than that of nations. Let him 
feel that he is placed in the community, not to part 
with his individuality or to become a tool, but that he 
should find a sphere for his various powers, and a prep- 
aration for immortal glory. ‘To me, the progress of 
society consists in nothing more than in bringing out 
the individual, in giving him a consciousness of his 
own being, and in quickening him to strengthen and 
elevate his own mind. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 176. 


136. Nations are Equally Bound with Individuals 
by the Moral Law 


Of all the doctrines by which vice has propagated 
itself, I know none more pernicious than the maxim 
that statesmen are exempted from the common re- 
straints of morality, that nations are not equally bound 
with individuals by the eternal laws of justice and 


180 THE MORAL LAW IN POLITICS 


philanthropy. Through this doctrine vice has lifted 
its head unblushingly in the most exalted stations. 
Vice has seated itself on the throne. “The men who 
have wielded the power and riveted the gaze of na- 
tions have lent the sanction of their greatness to 
crime. In the very heart of nations, in the cabinet 
of rulers, has been bred a moral pestilence which has 
infected and contaminated all orders of the state. 
Through the example of rulers, private men have 
learned to regard the everlasting law as a temporary 
conventional rule, and been blinded to the supremacy 
of virtue. 

That the prosperity of a people is intimately con- 
nected with this reverence for virtue which I have in- 
culcated on legislators, is most true, and cannot be too 
deeply felt. ‘There is no foundation for the vulgar 
doctrine, that a state may flourish by arts and crimes. 
Nations and individuals are subjected to one law. 
The moral principle is the life of communities. No 
calamity can befall a people so great as temporary 
success through a criminal policy, as the hope thus 
cherished of trampling with impunity on the authority 
of God. Sooner or later, insulted virtue avenges it- 
self terribly on states as well as on private men. We 
hope, indeed, security and the quiet enjoyment of our 
wealth from our laws and institutions. But civil laws 
find their chief sanction in the law written within by 
the finger of God. In proportion as a people enslave 
themselves to sin, the fountain of public justice be- 
comes polluted. The most wholesome statutes, want- 
ing the support of public opinion, grow impotent. 


THE MORAL LAW IN POLITICS 181 


Self-seekers, unprincipled men, by flattering bad pas- 
sions, and by darkening the public mind, usurp the seat 
of judgment and places of power and trust, and turn 
free institutions into lifeless forms or instruments of 
oppression. I especially believe that communities suf- 
fer sorely by that species of immorality which the herd 
of statesmen have industriously cherished as of signal 
utility,—I mean, by hostile feeling towards other coun- 
tries. The common doctrine has been, that prejudice 
and enmity towards foreign states are means of foster- 
ing a national spirit, and of confirming union at home. 
But bad passions, once instilled into a people, will 
never exhaust themselves abroad. Vice never yields 
the fruits of virtue. Injustice to strangers does not 
breed justice to our friends. Malignity, in every 
form, is a fire of hell, and the policy which feeds it 
is infernal. Domestic feuds and the madness of party 
are its natural and necessary issues; and a people hos- 
tile to others will demonstrate, in its history, that no 
form of inhumanity or injustice escapes its just retribu- 
tion. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 183. 
137. The Moral Standards and Ideals of the Govern- 


ment Influence Those of Its Citizens 


A government may, and should, ennoble the mind of 
the citizen, by continually holding up to him the idea 
of the general good. This idea should be impressed 
in characters of light on all legislation; and a govern- 
ment directing itself resolutely and steadily to this end, 
becomes a minister of virtue. It teaches the citizen 


182”) THE. MORAL LAWS INSPOELTIGS 


to attach a sanctity to the public weal, carries him be- 
yond selfish regards, nourishes magnanimity, and the 
purpose of sacrificing himself, as far as virtue will 
allow, to the commonwealth. On the other hand, a 
government which wields its power for selfish inter- 
ests, which sacrifices the many to a few, or the state 
to a party, becomes a public preacher of crime, taints 
the mind of the citizen, does its utmost to make him 
base and venal, and prepares him, by its example, to 
sell or betray that public interest for which he should 
be ready to die. 

Again, on government, more than on any institu- 
tion, depends that most important principle,—the 
sense of justice in the community. To promote this, 
it should express in all its laws a reverence for right, 
and an equal reverence for the rights of high and 
low, of rich and poor. It should choose to sacrifice 
the most dazzling advantages rather than break its 
own faith, rather than unsettle the fixed laws of prop- 
erty, or in any way shock the sentiment of justice in 
the community. 

Let me add one more method by which govern- 
ment is to lift up and enlarge the minds of its citizens. 
In its relations to other governments it should invio- 
lably adhere to the principles of justice and philan- 
thropy. By its moderation, sincerity, uprightness, and 
pacific spirit towards foreign states, by abstaining 
from secret arts and unfair advantages, by cultivating 
free and mutually beneficial intercourse, it should 
cherish among its citizens the ennobling consciousness 
of belonging to the human family, and of having a 


HES MORAL (eA WeIN POLITICS «183 


common interest with the whole human race. Goy- 
ernment only fulfils its end when it thus joins with 
Christianity in inculcating the law of universal love. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 182. 


138. Justice is the First Element of a Nation’s Honor 


The first element of a nation’s honor is undoubtedly 
justice. A people, to deserve respect, must lay down 
the maxim, as the foundation of its intercourse with 
other communities, that justice—a strict regard to the 
rights of other states—shall take rank of its interests. 
A nation without reverence for right can never plead 
in defence of a war, that this is needed to maintain 
its honor, for it has no honor to maintain. <A people 
systematically sacrificing justice to its interests, is es- 
sentially a band of robbers, and receives but the 
just punishment of its profligacy in the assaults of 
other nations. But it is not true that nations are so 
dead to moral principles. ‘The voice of justice is not 
always drowned by the importunities of interest; nor 
ought we, as citizens, to acquiesce in an injurious act 
on the part of our rulers towards other states, as if 
it were a matter of course, a necessary working of 
human selfishness. It ought to be reprobated as in- 
dignantly as the wrongs of private men. A people 
strictly just has an honor independent of opinion, and 
to which opinion must pay homage. Its glory is 
purer and more enduring than that of a thousand 
victories. Let not him who prefers for his country 
the renown of military spirit and success to that of 
justice, talk of his zeal for its honor. He does not 


184 THE MORAL LAW IN POLITICS 


know the meaning of the word. He belongs to a bar- 
barous age, and desires for his country no higher praise 
than has been gained by many a savage horde. 


On War (1835), p. 660. 


139. Rectitude is the Supreme Good of States 


Let a people exalt prosperity above rectitude, and 
a more dangerous end cannot be proposed. Public 
prosperity, general good, regarded by itself, or apart 
from the moral law, is something vague, unsettled, and 
uncertain, and will infallibly be so construed by the 
selfish and grasping as to secure their own aggrandize- 
ment. It may be made to wear a thousand forms, 
according to men’s interests and passions. This is 
illustrated by every day’s history. Nota party springs 
up which does not sanctify all its projects for monop- 
olizing power by the plea of general good. Not a 
measure, however ruinous, can be proposed which 
cannot be shown to favor one or another national 
interest. The truth is, that in the uncertainty of hu- 
man aftairs,—an uncertainty growing out of the in- 
finite and very subtile causes which are acting on com- 
munities,—the consequences of no measure can be fore- 
told with certainty. The best concerted schemes of 
policy often fail; whilst a rash and profligate adminis- 
tration may, by unexpected concurrences of events, 
seem to advance a nation’s glory. In regard to the 
means of national prosperity, the wisest are weak 
judges. For example, the present rapid growth of 
this country, carrying, as it. does, vast multitudes be- 
yond the institutions of religion and education, may be 


LEE aViORAT = CAW. IN SPOLEPICS 18s 


working ruin, whilst the people exult in it as a pledge of 
greatness. We are too shortsighted to find our law in 
outward interests. To states, as to individuals, rec- 
titude is the supreme law. It was never designed that 
the public good, as disjoined from this, as distinct 
from justice and reverence for all rights, should be 
comprehended and made our end. Statesmen work in 
the dark until the idea of right towers above expediency 
or wealth. Woe to that people which would found its 
prosperity in wrong!  Itis time that the low maxims of 
policy, which have ruled for ages, should fall. It is 
time that public interest should no longer hallow in- 
Justice, and fortify government in making the weak 
their prey. 
On Slavery, p. 701. 


140. There are Higher Motives than Self-interest 
in a Nation’s Career 


When will statesmen learn that there are higher 
powers than political motives, interest, and intrigues? 
When will they learn the might which dwells in truth? 
When will they learn that the great moral and religious 
ideas which have now seized on and are working in 
men’s souls are the most efficient, durable forces which 
are acting inthe world? When will they learn that the 
past and present are not the future, but that the 
changes already wrought in society are only forerun- 
ners, signs, and springs of mightier revolutions? Pol- 
iticians, absorbed in near objects, are prophets only 
ona small scale. ‘They may foretell the issues of the 
next election, though even here they are often bafiled; 


186. THE MORAL CAW@IN POLITICS 


but the breaking out of a deep moral conviction in 
the mass of men is a mystery which they have little 
skill to interpret. ‘The future of this country is to take 
its shape, not from the struggles of parties or leaders 
for power or station, but from the great principles 
which are unfolding themselves silently in men’s breast. 
There is here, and through the civilized world, a 
steady current of thought and feeling in one direction. 
The old notion of the subjection of the many for the 
comfort, ease, pleasure, and pride of the few, is fast 
wearing away. A far higher and more rational con- 
ception of freedom than entered into the loftiest spec- 
ulations of ancient times is spreading itself, and 1s 
changing the face of society. 

Principles of a higher order are beginning to operate 
and the dawn of these primal, everlasting lights is a 
sure omen of a brighter day. ‘This is the true sign of 
the coming ages. Politicians, seizing on the narrow, 
selfish principles of human nature, expect these to rule 
for ever. ‘They hope, by their own machinery, to 
determine the movements of the world. But if his- 
tory teaches any lesson, it is the impotence of states- 
men; and, happily, this impotence is increasing every 
day, with the spread of light and moral force among 
the people. Would politicians study history with more 
care, they might learn, even from the dark times which 
are past, that self-interest is not, after all, the mightiest 
agent in human aftairs; that the course of human events 
has been more determined, on the whole, by great prin- 
ciples, by great emotions, by feeling, by enthusiasm, 
than by selfish calculations, or by selfish men. 

On Slavery, p. 810. 


Ee VORAL IEA WIN PORTTICS: 1187 


141. The First Duty of a Statesman is to Build 
up the Moral Energy of a People 


The first duty of a statesman is to build up the moral 
energy of a people. ‘This is their first interest; and 
he who weakens it inflicts an injury which no talent can 
repair; nor should any splendor of services, or any 
momentary success, avert from him the infamy which 
he has earned. Let public men learn to think more 
reverently of their function. Let them feel that they 
are touching more vital interests than property. Let 
them fear nothing so much as to sap the moral con- 
victions of a people by unrighteous legislation or a 
selfish policy. Let them cultivate in themselves the 
spirit of religion and virtue, as the first requisite to 
public station. Let no apparent advantage to the com- 
munity, any more than to themselves, seduce them to 
the infraction of any morallaw. Let them put faith in 
virtue as the strength of nations. Let them not be dis- 
heartened by temporary ill success in upright exertion. 
Let them remember that, while they and their con- 
temporaries live but for a day, the state is to live for 
ages; and that Time, the unerring arbiter, will vindicate 
the wisdom as well as the magnanimity of the public 
men who, confiding in the power of truth, justice, and 
philanthropy, asserts their claims, and reverently fol- 
lows their monitions, amidst general disloyalty and cor- 
ruption. 


Spiritual Freedom, p. 184. 


142. A False Patriotism Often Incites to War 


A common cause of war is a false patriotism. It 


188 THE MORAL LAW IN POLITICS 


is a logical and generous impulse of nature to love the 
country which gave us birth, by whose institutions we 
have been moulded, by whose laws defended, and with 
whose soil and scenery innumerable associations of 
early years, of domestic affection, and of friendship, 
have been formed. But this sentiment often degener- 
ates into a narrow, partial, exclusive attachment, alien- 
ating us from other branches of the human family, 
and instigating to aggression on other states. In 
ancient times this principle was developed with wonder- 
ful energy, and sometimes absorbed every other senti- 
ment. To the Roman, Rome was the universe. 
Other nations were of no value but to grace her tri- 
umphs and illustrate her power; and he who in private 
life would have disdained injustice and oppression, 
exulted in the successful violence by which other nations 
were bound to the chariot-wheels of this mistress of the 
world. ‘This spirit still exists. The tie of country 
is thought to absolve men from the obligations of 
universal justice and humanity. Statesmen and rulers 
are expected to build up their own country at the ex- 
pense of others; and, in the false patriotism of the 
citizens, they have a security for any outrages which are 
sanctioned by success. 


On War, p. 647. 


143. The Guilty Passion for Power over One’s 
Fellow 


Of all injuries and crimes, the most flagrant is 
chargeable on him who aims to establish dominion 
over his brethren. He wars with what is more pre- 
cious than life. He would rob men of their chief 


THE MORAL LAW IN POLITICS 189 


prerogative and glory,—we mean, of self-dominion, 
of that empire which is given to a rational and moral 
being over his own soul and his own life. Such a 
being is framed to find honor and happiness in forming 
and swaying himself, in adopting as his supreme 
standard his convictions of truth and duty, in un- 
folding his powers by free exertion, in acting from 
a principle within, from his growing conscience. His 
proper and noblest attributes are self-government, self- 
reverence, energy of thought, energy in choosing the 
right and the good, energy in casting off all other 
dominion. He was created for empire in his own 
breast, and woe, woe to them who would pluck from 
him this sceptre! A mind inspired by God with reason 
and conscience, and capable, through these endow- 
ments, of progress in truth and duty, is a sacred thing; 
more sacred than temples made with hands, or even 
than this outward universe. It is of nobler lineage 
than that of which human aristocracy makes its boast. 
It bears the lineaments of a divine Parent. It has 
not only a physical, but moral connection with the Su- 
preme Being. Through its self-determining power, it 
is accountable for its deeds, and for whatever it be- 
comes. Responsibility—that which above all things 
makes existence solemn—is laid upon it. Its great 
end is to conform itself, by its own energy, and by 
spiritual succors which its own prayers and faithfulness 
secure, to that perfection of wisdom and goodness of 
which God is the original and source; which shines 
upon us from the whole outward world, but of 
which the intelligent soul is a truer recipient and a 
brighter image, even than the sun with all his splendors. 


10° | oLHE MORAL VAWS INSPOETEICS 


From these views we learn that no outrage, no injury, 
can equal that which is perpetrated by him who would 
break down and subjugate the human mind; who would 
rob men of self-reverence; who would bring them to 
stand more in awe of outward authority than of reason 
and conscience in their own souls; who would make 
himself a standard and law for his race, and shape, 
by force or terror, the free spirits of others after his 
own judgment and will. 
On Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 551. 


144. Democracy Prohibits the Monopoly of Power 


It is the distinction of republican institutions, that 
whilst they compel the passion for power to moderate 
its pretensions, and to satisfy itself with more limited 
gratifications, they tend to spread it more widely 
through the community, and to make it a universal 
principle. The doors of office being open to all, 
crowds burn to rush in. A thousand hands are 
stretched out to grasp the reins which are denied 
to none. Perhaps, in this boasted and boasting land 
of liberty, not a few, if called to state the chief good 
of a republic, would place it in this, that every man 
is eligible to every ofhce, and that the highest places 
of power and trust are prizes for universal competi- 
tion. ‘The superiority attributed by many to our in- 
stitutions is, not that they secure the greatest freedom, 
but give every man a chance of ruling; not that they 
reduce the power of government within the narrowest 
limits which the safety of the state admits, but throw 
it into as many hands as possible. ‘The despot’s great 
crime is thought to be that he keeps the delight of 


THE MORAL CAW IN POLITICS © rox 


dominion to himself, that he makes a monopoly of it, 
whilst our more generous institutions, by breaking it 
into parcels, and inviting the multitude to scramble 
for it, spread this joy more widely. The result is, 
that political ambition infects our country, and gen- 
erates a feverish restlessness and discontent, which, 
to the monarchist, may seem more than a balance for 
our forms of liberty. The spirit of intrigue, which 
in absolute governments is confined to courts, walks 
abroad through the land; and, as individuals can ac- 
complish no political purposes single-handed, they 
band themselves into parties, ostensibly framed for 
public ends, but aiming only at the acquisition of power. 
The nominal sovereign, that is, the people, like all 
other sovereigns, is courted and flattered, and told 
that it can do no wrong. Its pride is pampered, its 
passions inflamed, its prejudices made inveterate. 
Such are the processes by which other republics have 
been subverted, and he must be blind who cannot 
trace them among ourselves. We mean not to exag- 
gerate our dangers. We rejoice to know that the 
improvements of society oppose many checks to the 
love of power. But every wise man who sees its 
workings must dread it as our chief foe. 
On Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 554. 


THE CHRISTIAN. PATRIOT 
145. Above All Nations is Humanity 


We love our country. much, but mankind more. As 
men and Christians, our first desire is to see the im- 
provement of human nature. We desire to see the 
soul of man wiser, firmer, nobler, more conscious of 
its imperishable treasures, more beneficent and power- 
ful, more alive to its connection with God, more able 
to use pleasure and prosperity aright, and more vic- 
torious over poverty, adversity, and pain. In our 
survey of our own and other countries, the great ques- 
tion which comes to us is this, Where and under what 
institutions are men most likely to advance? Where 
are the soundest minds and the purest hearts formed? 
What nation possesses, in its history, its traditions, its 
government, its religion, its manners, its pursuits, its re- 
lations to other communities, and especially in its 
private and public means of education, the instruments 
and pledges of a more resolute virtue and devotion to 
truth, than we now witness? Such a nation, be it where 
it may, will engage our warmest interest. We love our 
country, but not blindly. In all nations we recognize 
one great family, and our chief wish for our native 
land is, that it may take the first rank among the lights 
and benefactors of the human race. 


On National Literature, p. 125. 
192 : 


THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT 193 


146. National Happiness Bound Up with 
National Virtue 


I feel—as I doubt not many feel—that the great 
distinction of a nation, the only one worth possessing, 
and which brings after it all other blessings, is the 
prevalence of pure principle among the citizens. I wish 
to belong to a state in the character and institutions 
of which I may find a spring of improvement, which 
I can speak of with an honest pride, in whose records 
I may meet great and honored names, and which ts 
making the world its debtor by its discoveries of 
truth, and by an example of virtuous freedom. Oh, 
save me from a country which worships wealth and 
cares not for true glory; in which intrigue bears rule; 
in which patriotism borrows its zeal from the prospect 
of office; in which hungry sycophants besiege with 
supplications all the departments of state; in which 
public men bear the brand of vice, and the seat of gov- 
ernment is a noisome sink of private licentiousness and 
political corruption! Tell me not of the honor of 
belonging to a free country. I ask, does our liberty 
bear generous fruits? Does it exalt us in manly spirit, 
in public virtue, above countries trodden under foot by 
despotism? Tell me not of the extent of our terri- 
tory. I care not how large it is if it multiply degen- 
erate men. Speak not of our prosperity. Better be 
one of a poor people, plain in manners, revering 
God and respecting themselves, than belong to a 
rich country which knows no higher good than 
riches. 

Of this country I may say with peculiar emphasis 


194 THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT 


that its happiness is bound up in its virtue. On this 
our union can alone stand firm. 


On Spiritual Freedom, p. 185. 


147. Intellectual Culture is Indispensable to a 
Country's Greatness 


We maintain that a people which has any serious 
purpose of taking a place among improved commun- 
ities, should studiously promote within itself every 
variety of intellectual exertion. It should resolve 
strenuously to be surpassed by none. It should feel 
that mind is the creative power through which all the 
resources of nature are to be turned to account, and 
by which a people is to spread its influence, and estab- 
lish the noblest form of empire. It should train within 
itself men able to understand and to use whatever is 
thought and discovered over the whole earth. ‘The 
whole mass of human knowledge should exist among 
a people, not in neglected libraries, but in its higher 
minds. Among its most cherished institutions should 
be those which will ensure to it ripe scholars, explor- 
ers of ancient learning, profound historians and math- 
ematicians, intellectual laborers devoted to physical 
and moral science, and to the creation of a refined and 
beautiful literature. 

Let us not be misunderstood. We have no desire 
to rear in our country a race of pedants, of solemn 
triflers, of laborious commentators on the mysteries 
of a Greek accent or a rusty coin. We would have 
men explore antiquity, not to bury themselves in its 
dust, but to learn its spirit, and so to commune with 
its superior minds as to accumulate on the present age 


THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT 195 


the influences of whatever was great and wise in for- 
mer times. What we want is, that those among us 
whom God has gifted to comprehend whatever is now 
known, and to rise to new truths, may find aids and 
institutions to fit them for their high calling, and may 
become at once springs of a higher intellectual life 
to their own country, and joint workers with the great 
of all nations and times in carrying forward their 
race. 
On National Literature, p. 130. 


148. The Great Question Is, Does a Country 
Produce Noble Men? 


The great distinction of a country, then, is, that it 
produces superior men. Its natural advantages are 
not to be disdained. But they are of secondary im- 
portance. No matter what races of animals a country 
breeds, the great question is, Does it breed a noble 
race of men? No matter what its soil may be, the 
great question is, How far is it prolific of moral and 
intellectual power? No matter how stern its climate 
is, if it nourish force of thought and virtuous purpose. 
These are the products by which a country is to be 
tried, and institutions have value only by the impulse 
which they give to the mind. It has sometimes been 
said that the noblest men grow where nothing else 
will grow. ‘This we do not believe, for mind is not 
the creature of climate or soil. But were it true, we 
should say that it were better to live among rocks 
and sands than in the most genial and productive re- 
gion on the face of the earth. 

On National Literature, p. 124. 


THE MISSION OF AMERICA 


149. The Promise of America’s Greatness 


When we look forward to the probable growth of 
this country; when we think of the millions of human 
beings who are to spread over our present territory; 
of the career of improvement and glory opened to 
this new people; of the impulse which free institu- 
tions, if prosperous, may be expected to give to phi- 
losophy, religion, science, literature, and arts; of the 
vast field in which the experiment is to be made, of 
what the unfettered powers of man may achieve; of 
the bright page of history which our fathers have 
filled, and of the advantages under which their toils 
and virtues have placed us for carrying on their work; 
—when we think of all this, can we help, for a mo- 
ment, surrendering ourselves to bright visions of our 
country’s glory, before which all the glories of the 
past are to fade away? Is it presumption to say that, 
if just to ourselves and all nations, we shall be felt 
through this whole continent, that we shall spread 
our language, institutions, and civilization through a 
wider space than any nation has yet filled with a like 
beneficent influence? And are we prepared to barter 
these hopes, this sublime moral empire, for conquests 
by force? Are we prepared to sink to the level of un- 
principled nations, to content ourselves with a vulgar, 
guilty greatness, to adopt in our youth maxims and 

196 


THE MISSION OF AMERICA 197 


ends which must brand our future with sordidness, op- 
pression, and shame? This country cannot without 
peculiar infamy run the common race of national ra- 
pacity. Our origin, institutions, and position are pe- 
culiar, and all favor an upright, honorable course. 
We have not the apologies cf nations hemmed in by 
narrow bounds, or threatened by the overshadowing 
power of ambitious neighbors. If we surrender our- 
selves to a selfish policy, we shall sin almost without 
temptation, and forfeit opportunities of greatness 
vouchsafed to no other people, for a prize below con- 
tempt. 
On the Annexation of Texas, p. 776. 


150. The Rights of the Individual in America 


The views of human rights, which pervade and 
light up our history, may be expressed in one word. 
They are summed up in respect for the individual 
man. In all other countries the man has been ob- 
scured, overpowered by rulers, merged in the state, 
made a means or tool. Here every man has been 
recognized as having rights on which no one can 
trench without crime. ‘The nation has recognized, 
something greater than the nation’s prosperity, than 
outward, material interests; and that is, individual 
right. In our Revolution a dignity was seen in human 
nature; a generous confidence was placed in men. It 
was believed that they would attain to greater noble- 
ness by being left to govern themselves; that they 
would attain to greater piety by being left to worship 
God according to their own convictions; that they 
would attain to greater energy of intellect, and to 


198 THE MISSION OF AMERICA 


higher truths, by being left to freedom of thought and 
utterance, than by the wisest forms of arbitrary rule. 
It was believed that a universal expansion of the 
higher faculties was to be secured by increasing men’s 
responsibilities, by giving them higher interests to 
watch over, by throwing them very much on them- 
selves. Such is the grand idea which lies at the root 
of our institutions; such the fundamental doctrines 
of the political creed into which we have all been 
baptized. 
The Duty of the Free States, p. S39. 


151. America’s Mission of Philanthropy to the World 


A great element of a nation’s honor is a spirit of 
philanthropy. A people ought to regard itself as a 
member of the human family, and as bound to bear 
part in the work of human improvement and happi- 
ness. The obligation of benevolence, belonging to 
men as individuals, belongs to them in their associated 
capacities. We have, indeed, no right to form an 
association of whatever kind, which severs us from 
the human race. I care not though men of loose 
principles scoff at the idea of a nation respecting the 
claims of humanity. Duty is eternal, and too high 
for human mockery; and this duty in particular, so 
far from being a dream, has been reduced to practice. 
Our own country, in framing its first treaties, proposed 
to insert an article prohibiting privateering; and this 
it did in the spirit of humanity, to diminish the crimes 
and miseries of war. England, from philanthropy, 
abolished the slave-trade and slavery. No nation 
stands alone; and each is bound to consecrate its in- 


THE MISSION OF AMERICA _199 


fluence to the promotion of equitable, pacific, and be- 
neficent relations among all countries, and to the dif- 
fusion of more liberal principles of intercourse and 
national law. ‘This country is intrusted by God with 
a mission for humanity. Its office is to commend to 
all nations free institutions, as the sources of public 
prosperity and personal dignity; and I trust we desire 
to earn the thanks and honor of nations by fidelity to 
our trust. A people reckless of the interest of the 
world, and profligately selfish in its policy, incurs far 
deeper disgrace than by submission to wrongs; and 
whenever it is precipitated into war by its cupidity, its 
very victories become monuments of its guilt, and de- 
serve the execration of present and coming times. 


On War (1835) p. 660. 


152. Our National Wealth Endangers our Ideals 


In one respect our institutions have disappointed us 
all. ‘They have not wrought out for us that elevation 
of character which is the most precious, and, in truth, 
the only substantial blessing of liberty. Our progress 
in prosperity has indeed been the wonder of the world; 
but this prosperity has done much to counteract the 
ennobling influence of free institutions. ‘The peculiar 
circumstances of the country and of our times have 
poured in upon us a torrent of wealth; and human na- 
ture has not been strong enough for the assault of 
such severe temptation. Prosperity has become 
dearer than freedom. Government is regarded more 
as a means of enriching the country than of securing 
private rights. We have become wedded to gain as 
our chief good. That, under the predominance of 


200 THE MISSION OF AMERICA 


this degrading passion, the higher virtues, the moral 
independence, the simplicity of manners, the stern up- 
rightness, the self-reverence, the respect for man as 
man, which are the ornaments and safeguards of a 
republic, should wither, and give place to selfish cal- 
culation and indulgence, to show and: extravagance, to 
anxious, envious, discontented strivings, to wild ad- 
venture, and to the gambling spirit of speculation, will 
surprise no one who has studied human nature. ‘The 
invasion of Texas by our citizens is a mournful com- 
ment on our national morality. Whether, without 
some fiery trial, some signal prostration of our pros- 
perity, we can rise to the force and self-denial of free- 
men, is a question not easily solved. 


On the Annexation of Texas, p. 774. 


153. Imperialistic Expansion an Imminent Peril 


Did this country know itself, or were it disposed to 
profit by self-knowledge, it would feel the necessity of 
laying an immediate curb on its passion for extended 
territory. It would not trust itself to new acquisi- 
tions. It would shrink from the temptation to con- 
quest. We are a restless people, prone to encroach- 
ment, impatient of the ordinary laws of progress, less 
anxious to consolidate and perfect than to extend our 
institutions, more ambitious of spreading ourselves 
over a wide space than of diffusing beauty and fruit- 
fulness over a narrower field. We boast of our rapid 
erowth, forgetting that throughout nature noble 
growths are slow. Our people throw themselves be- 
yond the bounds of civilization, and expose themselves 
to relapses into a semi-barbarous state, under the im- 


THE MISSION OF AMERICA 201 


pulse of wild imagination, and for the name of great 
possessions. Perhaps there is no people on earth on 
whom the ties of local attachment sit so loosely. 
Even the wandering tribes of Scythia are bound to one 
spot, the graves of their fathers; but the homes and 
graves of our fathers detain us feebly. The known 
and familiar is often abandoned for the distant and 
untrodden; and sometimes the untrodden is not the 
less eagerly desired because belonging to others. We 
owe this spirit, in a measure, to our descent from men 
who left the Old World for the New, the seats of 
ancient cultivation for a wilderness, and who advanced 
by driving before them the old occupants of the soil. 
To this spirit we have sacrificed justice and humanity; 
and, through its ascendency, the records of this young 
nation are stained with atrocities at which communities 
grown gray in corruption might blush. 

It is full time that we should lay on ourselves ser- 
ious, resolute restraint. Possessed of a domain vast 
enough for the growth of ages, it is time for us to 
stop in the career of acquisition and conquest. A\l- 
ready endangered by our greatness, we cannot advance 
without imminent peril to our institutions, union, pros- 
perity, virtue, and peace. 

On the Annexation of Texas, p. 760. 


154. 4 Moral Interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine 


Is the time never to come when the neighborhood of 
a more powerful and civilized people will prove a 
blessing, instead of a curse, to an inferior community ? 
It was my hope, when the Spanish colonies of this 
continent separated themselves from the mother coun- 


*202 THE MISSION OF AMERICA 


try, and, in admiration of the United States, adopted 
republican institutions, that they were to find in us 
friends to their freedom, helpers to their civilization. 
If ever a people were placed by Providence in a con- 
dition to do good to a neighboring state, we of this 
country sustained such a relation to Mexico. ‘That 
nation, inferior in science, arts, agriculture, and legis- 
lation, looked to us with a generous trust. She opened 
her ports and territories to our farmers, mechanics, 
and merchants. We might have conquered her by the 
only honorable arms,—by the force of superior intel- 
ligence, industry, and morality. We might silently 
have poured in upon her our improvements, and by the 
infusion of our population have assimilated her to our- 
selves. Justice, good-will, and profitable intercourse 
might have cemented a lasting friendship. And what 
is now the case? A deadly hatred burns in Mexico 
towards this country. No stronger national sentiment 
now binds her scattered provinces together than dread 
and detestation of republican America. She is ready 
to attach herself to Europe for defence from the 
United States. All the moral power which we might 
have gained over Mexico we have thrown away; and 
suspicion, dread, and abhorrence have supplanted re- 
spect and trust. 

I am aware that these remarks are met by a vicious 
reasoning, which discredits a people among whom it 
finds favor. It is sometimes said that nations are 
swayed by laws as unfailing as those which govern 
matter; that they have their destinies; that their char- 
acter and position carry them forward irresistibly to 
their goal; that the stationary Turk must sink under 


THE MISSION OF AMERICA 203 


the progressive civilization of Russia, as inevitably as 
the crumbling edifice falls to the earth; that, by a like 
necessity, the Indians have melted before the white 
man, and the mixed, degraded race of Mexico must 
melt before the Anglo-Saxon. Away with this vile 
sophistry! There is no necessity for crime. ‘There is 
no fate to justify rapacious nations, any more than to 
justify gamblers and robbers in plunder. We 
boast of the progress of society, and this progress 
consists in the substitution of reason and moral prin- 
ciple for the sway of brute force. It is true that more 
civilized must always exert a great power over less 
civilized communities in their neighborhood. But it 
may and should be a power to enlighten and improve, 
not to crush and destroy. 
On the Annexation of Texas, p. 762. 


155. Freedom of Speech and of the Press 
the Bulwark of Liberty 


Freedom of opinion, of speech, and of the press, is 
our most valuable privilege, the very soul of repub- 
lican institutions, the safeguard of all other rights. 
We may learn its value if we reflect that there is noth- 
ing which tyrants so much dread. ‘They anxiously fet- 
ter the press; they scatter spies through society, that 
the murmurs, anguish, and indignation of their op- 
pressed subjects may be smothered in their own breasts; 
that no generous sentiment may be nourished by 
sympathy and mutual confidence. Nothing awakens 
and improves men so much as free communciation of 
thoughts and feelings. Nothing can give to public 
sentiment that correctness which is essential to the 


204. THE MISSION OF AMERICA 


prosperity of a commonwealth but the free circulation 
of truth from the lips and pens of the wise and good. 
If such men abandon the right of free discussion; if, 
awed by threats, they suppress their convictions; if 
rulers succeed in silencing every voice but that which 
approves them; if nothing reaches the people but what 
would lend support to men in power,—farewell to 
liberty. The form of a free government may remain, 
but the life, the soul, the substance is fled. 

If these remarks be just, nothing ought to excite 
greater indignation and alarm than the attempts which 
have lately been made to destroy the freedom of the 
press. We have lived to hear the strange doctrine, 
that to expose the measures of rulers is treason; and 
we have lived to see this doctrine carried into practice. 
We have seen a savage populace excited and let loose 
on men whose crime consisted in bearing testimony 
against the present war; and let loose not merely to 
waste their property, but to tear them from the refuge 
which the magistrate had afforded, and to shed their 
blood. In this, and in other events, there have been 
symptoms of a purpose to terrify into silence those 
who disapprove the calamitous war under which we 
suffer; to deprive us of the only method which is left 
of obtaining a wiser and better government. ‘The 
cry has been that war is declared, and all opposition 
should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more un- 
worthy of a free country can hardly be propagated. 
If this doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to de- 
clare war, and they are screened at once from scrutiny. 
At the very time when they have armies at command, 
when their patronage is most extended, and their 


THE MISSION OF AMERICA 205 


power most formidable, not a word of warning, of cen- 
sure, of alarm must be heard. ‘The press, which is 
to expose inferior abuses, must not utter one rebuke, 
one indignant complaint, although our best interests 
and most valuable rights are put to hazard by an un- 
necessary war! Admit this doctrine, let rulers once 
know that, by placing the country in a state of war, 
they place themselves beyond the only power they 
dread,—the power of free discussion,—and we may 
expect war without end. Our peace and all our inter- 
ests require that a different sentiment should prevail. 
We should teach our present and all future rulers that 
there is no measure for which they must render so 
solemn an account to their constituents as for a dec- 
laration of war; that no measure will be so freely, so 
fully discussed; and that no administration can suc- 
ceed in persuading this people to exhaust their treas- 
ure and blood in supporting war, unless it be palpably 
necessary and just. In war, then, as in peace, assert 
the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to 
this as the bulwark of all your rights and privileges. 
The Duties of Citizens, p. 682. 


156. Have Faith and Patience 


We all know that it is through errors, sins, and 
sufferings that the individual makes progress; and so 
does a people. A nation cannot learn to govern it- 
self in a day. New institutions conferring great 
power on a people open a door to many and great 
abuses, from which nothing but the slow and painful 
discipline of experience can bring deliverance. After 
all, there is a growing intelligence in this community; 


206 THE MISSION OF AMERICA 


there is much domestic virtue, there is a deep working 
of Christianity; there is going on a struggle of higher 
truths with narrow traditions, and of a wider benevo- 
lence with social evils; there is a spirit of freedom, a 
recognition of the equal rights of men; there are pro- 
found impulses received from our history, from the 
virtues of our fathers, and especially from our revo- 
lutionary conflict. 

There is one duty of the free States of which I have 
not spoken; it is the duty of faith in the intellectual and 
moral energies of the country, in its high destiny, and 
in the good Providence which has guided it through so 
many trials and perils to its present greatness. We 
indeed suffer much, and deserve to suffer more. 
Many dark pages are to be written in our history. 
But generous seed is still sown in this nation’s mind. 
Noble impulses are working here. We are called to 
be witnesses to the world of a freer, more equal, more 
humane, more enlightened social existence than has 
yet been known. May God raise us to a more thor- 
ough comprehension of our work! May he give us 
faith in the good which we are summoned to achieve! 
May he strengthen us to build up a prosperity not 
tainted by slavery, selfishness, or any wrong; but pure, 
innocent, righteous, and overflowing, through a just 
and generous intercourse, on all the nations of the 
earth! 

The Duty of the Free States, p. 905. 


THE GOOD) CIEIZEN 
157. A Description of a Happy Community 


How plain is the social destination of man! born, 
as he is, into the arms of love, sustained from the be- 
ginning by human kindness, endowed with speech, and 
plunged among fellow-beings to whose feelings he can- 
not but respond, into whose hearts he yearns to pour 
his own, and whose rights, feelings, and interests are 
commended to his regard by a law of love and justice 
written within him by a divine hand. Can we ask why 
such beings are gathered into cities? Is it not that 
they should propose a common weal? Is it not that 
they should desire and seek each other’s highest good? 
What is the happiest community? What the city 
which should be chosen above all others as our home? 
It is that the members of which form one body, in 
which no class seeks a monopoly of honor or good, in 
which no class is a prey to others, in which there is 
a general desire that every human being may have op- 
portunity to develop his powers. What is the happi- 
est community? It is not that in which the goods of 
life are accumulated in a few hands, in which prop- 
erty sinks a great gulf between different ranks, in which 
one portion of society swells with pride and the other 
is broken in spirit; but a community in which labor 
is respected, and the means of comfort and improve- 
ment are liberally diffused. It is not a community in 

207 


208 THE GOOD CITIZEN 


which intelligence is developed in a few, whilst the 
many are given up to ignorance, superstition, and a 
gross animal existence; but one in which the mind is 
so reverenced in every condition that the opportuni- 
ties of its culture are afforded to all. It is a commun- 
ity in which religion is not used to break the many 
into subjection, but is dispensed even to the poorest, to 
rescue them from the degrading influence of poverty, 
to give them generous sentiments and hopes, to exalt 
them from animals into men, into Christians, into 
children of God. ‘This is a happy community, where 
human nature is held in honor; where, to rescue it 
from ignorance and crime, to give it an impulse to- 
wards knowledge, virtue, and happiness, is thought the 
chief end of the social union. 


On Joseph Tuckerman, p. 579. 
158. The Greatest Thing in a City is Man Himself 


It is a plain truth, and yet how little understood! 
that the greatest thing in a city is man himself. He 
is its end. We admire its palaces; but the mechanic 
who builds them is greater than palaces. Human 
nature, in its lowest form, in the most abject child of 
want, is of more worth than all outward improve- 
ments. You talk of the prosperity of your city. I 
know but one true prosperity. Does the human soul 
grow and prosper here? Do not point me to your 
thronged streets. I ask, Who throng them? Is it a 
low-minded, self-seeking, gold-worshipping, man- 
despising crowd, which I see rushing through them? 
Do I meet in them, under the female form, the gayly- 


THE GOOD CITIZEN 209 


decked prostitute, or the idle, wasteful, aimless, profit- 
less woman of fashion? Do I meet the young man 
showing off his pretty person as the perfection of na- 
ture’s works, wasting his golden hours in dissipation 
and sloth, and bearing in his countenance and gaze the 
marks of a profligate? Do I meet a grasping multi- 
tude, seeking to thrive by concealments and frauds? 
an anxious multitude, driven by fear of want to doubt- 
ful means of gain? an unfeeling multitude, caring noth- 
ing for others, if they may themselves prosper or en- 
joy? In the neighborhood of your comfortable or 
splendid dwellings are there abodes of squalid misery, 
of reckless crime, of bestial intemperance, of half- 
famished childhood, of profaneness, of dissoluteness, 
of temptation for thoughtless youth? And are these 
multiplying with your prosperity, and outstripping and 
neutralizing the influences of truth and virtue? ‘Then 
your prosperity is a vain show. Its true use is, to 
make a better people. The glory and happiness of a 
city consist not in the number, but the character, of 
its population. Of all the fine arts in a city, the grand- 
est is the art of forming noble specimens of humanity. 
The costliest productions of our manufactures are 
cheap compared with a wise and good human being. 
A city which should practically adopt the principle, 
that man is worth more than wealth or show, would 
gain an impulse that would place it at the head of 
cities. A city in which men should be trained worthy 
of the name would become the metropolis of the earth. 
On Joseph Tuckerman, p. 580. 


210 THE GOOD CITIZEN 


159. Our Personal Interest in the Moral State of 
Our City 


We defeat ourselves, when we neglect the moral 
state of the city where we live, under pretence of car- 
ing for our families. How little may it profit you, 
my friends, that you labor at home, if in the next 
street, amidst haunts of vice, the incendiary, the thief, 
the ruffian, is learning his lesson or preparing his in- 
struments of destruction! How little may it profit 
you that you are striving to educate your children, if 
around you the children of others are neglected, are 
contaminated with evil principles or impure passions! 
Where is it that our sons often receive the most 
powerful impulses? In the street, at school, from 
associates. ‘heir ruin may be sealed by a young fe- 
male brought up in the haunts of vice. Their first 
oaths may be echoes of profaneness which they hear 
from the sons of the abandoned. What is the great 
obstruction to our efforts for educating our children? 
It is the corruption around us. That corruption steals 
into our homes, and neutralizes the influence of home. 
We hope to keep our little circle pure amidst general 
impurity. This is like striving to keep our particular 
houses healthy, when infection is raging around us. 
If an accumulation of filth in our neighborhood were 
sending forth foul stench and pestilential vapors on 
every side, we should not plead, as a reason for letting 
it remain, that we were striving to prevent a like ac- 
cumulation within our own doors. Disease would not 
less certainly invade us because the source of it was 
not prepared by ourselves. The infection of moral evil 
is as perilous as that of the plague. We have a per- 


THE GOOD CITIZEN 211 


sonal interest in the prevalence of order and good 
principles on every side. If any member of the social 
body suffer, all must suffer with it. 

Joseph Tuckerman, p. 582. 


160. The Impartial Administration of Law Vital 
to National Well-being 


The impartial administration of a good code of 
laws is the grand result, the paramount good, to which 
all political arrangements should be subordinate. ‘The 
reign of justice, which is the reign of rights and liberty, 
is the great boon we should ask from the state. The 
judicial is the highest function. The chief justice 
should rank before king or president. The pomp of 
a palace may be dispensed with; but every imposing 
solemnity consistent with the simplicity of our manners 
should be combined in the hall where the laws which 
secure every man’s rights are administered. ‘To ac- 
complish the great end of government, nothing is so 
important as to secure the impartiality and moral in- 
dependence of judges; and for this end they should be 
appointed for life, subject to removal only for viola- 
tion of duty. This is essential. A judge should not 
hang on the smiles of king or people. In him the peo- 
ple should erect a power above their own temporary 
will. There ought to be in the state something to rep- 
resent the majesty of that stable, everlasting law to 
which all alike should bow; some power above the 
sordid interests, and aloof from the struggles and 
intrigues of ordinary public life. “The dependence of 
the judge on the breath of party or the fleeting pas- 
sions of the people is a deformity in the state, for 


ify, THE GOOD CITIZEN 


which no other excellence in popular institutions can 
make compensation. The grandest spectacle in this 
country is the judiciary power, raised by the people to 
independence of parties and temporary majorities, tak- 
ing as its first guide the national charter, the funda- 
mental law, which no parties can touch, which stands 
like a rock amidst the fluctuations of opinion, and 
determining by this the validity of the laws enacted by 
transient legislatures. 


On the Duty of the Free States, p. S96. 
161. Mob Rule a Denial of Freedom 


Let every friend of freedom, let every good man, 
lift up his voice against mobs. Through these lies 
our road to tyranny. It is these which have spread 
the opinion, so common at the South, that the free 
States cannot long sustain republican institutions. No 
man seems awake to their inconsistency with liberty. 
Mobs call themselves, and are called, the people, when 
in truth they assail immediately the sovereignty of 
the people, when they involve the guilt of usurpation 
and rebellion against the people. It is the funda- 
mental principle of our institutions, that the people is 
sovereign. But by the people we mean not an indi- 
vidual here and there, not a knot of twenty or a hun- 
dred or a thousand individuals in this or that spot, but 
the community formed into a body politic, and express- 
ing and executing its will through regularly appointed 
organs. ‘There is but one expression of the will or soy- 
ereignty of the people, and that is law. Law is the 
voice, the living act, of the people. It has no other. 
When an individual suspends the operation of law, 


THE GOOD CITIZEN DUR 


resists its established ministers, and forcibly substitutes 
for it his own will, he is a usurper and rebel. ‘The 
same guilt attaches to a combination of individuals. 
These, whether many or few, in forcibly superseding 
public law and establishing their own, rise up against 
the people as truly as a single usurper. The people 
should assert its insulted majesty, its menaced sover- 
eignty, in one case as decidedly as in the other. ‘The 
difference between the mob and the individual is, that 
the usurpation of the latter has a permanence not 
easily given to the tumultuary movements of the 
former. ‘The distinction is a weighty one. Little im- 
portance is due to sudden bursts of the populace, be- 
cause they so soon pass away. But when mobs are 
organized, as in the French Revolution, or when they 
are deliberately resolved on and systematically re- 
sorted to, as the means of putting down an odious 
party, they lose this apology. A conspiracy exists 
against the sovereignty of the people, and ought to be 
suppressed, as among the chief evils of the state. 


On Slavery, p. 736. 


162. Lawlessness a Shame and Threat to Society 


A spirit of lawlessness pervades the community, 
which, if not repressed, threatens the dissolution of 
our present forms of society. Even in the old States, 
mobs are taking the government into their hands, and 
a profligate newspaper finds little difficulty in stirring 
up multitudes to violence. Men take under their own 
protection the rights which it is the very office of 
government to secure. ‘The citizen, wearing arms as 
means of defence, carries with him perpetual proofs of 


214 THE GOOD CITIZEN 


the weakness of the authorities under which he lives. 
The substitution of self-constituted tribunals for the 
regular course of justice, and the infliction of imme- 
diate punishment in the moment of popular frenzy, 
are symptoms of a people half reclaimed from barba- 
rism. I know not that any civilized country on earth 
has exhibited during the last year a spectacle so atro- 
cious as the burning of a colored man by a slow fire; 
and this infernal sacrifice was offered not by a few 
fiends selected from the whole country, but by a crowd 
gathered from a single spot. Add to all this, the in- 
vasions of the rights of speech and of the press by 
lawless force, the extent and toleration of which oblige 
us to believe that a considerable portion of our citizens 
have no comprehension of the first principles of lib- 
CLL. 
On the Annexation of Texas, p. 775. 


163. The Value and Power of an Upright 
Newspaper 


I cannot easily conceive of a greater good to a city 
than the establishment of a newspaper by men of su- 
perior ability and moral independence, who should 
judge all parties and public measures by the standard 
of the Christian law, who should uncompromisingly 
speak the truth, and adhere to the right, who should 
make it their steady aim to form a just and lofty public 
sentiment, and who should at the same time give to up- 
right and honorable men an opportunity of making 
known their opinions on matters of general interest, 
however opposed to the opinions and passions of the 
day. In the present stage of society, when newspapers 


THE, GOOD CITIZEN 215 


form the reading of all classes, and the chief reading 
of multitudes, the importance of the daily press can- 
not be overrated. It is one of the mightiest instru- 
ments at work among us. It may and should take 
rank among the most effectual means of social order 
and improvement. It is a power which should be 
wielded by the best minds in the community. The of- 
fice of editor is one of solemn responsibility, and the 
community should encourage the most gifted and virtu- 
ous men to assume it, by liberally recompensing their 
labor, and by according to them that freedom of 
thought and speech without which no mind puts forth 
all its vigor, and which the highest minds rank among 
their dearest rights and blessings. 
The Abolitionists, p. 751. 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 
TOA! The Moral Sentiment of the World against War 


The abolition of war, is no longer to be set down as 
a creation of fancy, a dream of enthusiastic philan- 
thropy. War rests on opinion; and opinion is more 
and more withdrawing its support. War rests on 
contempt of human nature; on the long, mournful 
habit of regarding the mass of human beings as ma- 
chines, or as animals having no higher use than to be 
shot at and murdered for the glory of a chief, for 
the seating of this or that family on a throne, for 
the petty interests or selfish rivalries which have in- 
flamed states to conflict. Let the worth of a human 
being be felt; let the mass of a people be elevated; 
let it be understood that a man was made to enjoy in- 
alienable rights, to improve lofty powers, to secure 
a vast happiness; and a main pillar of war will fall. 
And is it not plain that these views are taking place 
of the contempt in which man has so long been held? 
War finds another support in the prejudices and par- 
tialities of a narrow patriotism. Let the great Chris- 
tian principle of human brotherhood be comprehended, 
let the Christian spirit of universal love gain ground, 
and just so fast the custom of war, so long the pride 
of men, will become their abhorrence and execration. 


It is encouraging to see how outward events are con- 
216 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 217 


curring with the influences of Christianity in promot- 
ing peace; how an exclusive nationality is yielding to 
growing intercourse; how different nations, by mutual 
visits, by the interchange of thoughts and products, by 
studying one another’s language and literature, by 
union of efforts in the cause of religion and humanity, 
are growing up to the consciousness of belonging to 
one great family. Every railroad, connecting distant 
regions, may be regarded as accomplishing a ministry 
of peace. Every year which passes without war, by 
interweaving more various ties of interest and friend- 
ship, is a pledge of coming years of peace. 


The Philanthropist, p. 605. 
165. “Must the Sword Devour For Ever?” 


“Must the sword devour for ever?’ Must force, 
fear, pain, always rule the world? Is the kingdom 
of God, the reign of truth, duty, and love never to 
prevail? Must the sacred name of brethrén be only 
a name among men? Must the divinity in man’s na- 
ture never be recognized with veneration? Is the 
earth always to steam with human blood shed by man’s 
hands, and to echo with groans wrung from hearts 
which violence has pierced? ‘Can you and I, my 
friends, do nothing, nothing to impress a different 
character on the future history of our race? You 
say we are weak; and why weak? It is from inward 
defect, not from outward necessity. We are inefh- 
cient abroad, because faint within,—faint in love, and 
trust, and holy resolution. Inward power always 
comes forth, and works without. Noah Worcester, 
enfeebled in body, was not weak. George Fox, poor 


218 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


and uneducated, was not weak. They had light and 
life within, and therefore were strong abroad. Their 
spirits were stirred by Christ’s truth and spirit; and, 
so moved, they spoke and were heard. We are dead, 
and therefore cannot act. Perhaps we speak against 
war; but if we speak from tradition, if we echo what 
we hear, if peace be a cant on our lips, our words are 
unmeaning air. Our own souls must bleed when our 
brethren are slaughtered. We must feel the infinite 
wrong done to man by the brute force which treads 
him in the dust. We must see in the authors of un- 
just, selfish, ambitious, revengeful wars, monsters in 
human form, incarnations of the dread enemy of the 
human race. Under the inspiration of such feelings, 
we shall speak, even the humblest of us, with some- 
thing of prophetic force. This is the power which 
is to strike awe into the counsellors and perpetrators 
of now licensed murder; which is to wither the lau- 
relled brow of now worshipped heroes. Deep moral 
convictions, unfeigned reverence and fervent love for 
man, and living faith in Christ, are mightier than ar- 
mies; mighty through God to the pulling down of 
the strongholds of oppression and war. Go forth, 
then, friends of mankind, peaceful soldiers of Christ! 
and in your various relations, at home and abroad, in 
private life, and, if it may be, in more public spheres, 
give faithful utterance to the principles of universal 
justice and love, give utterance to your deep, solemn, 
irreconcilable hatred of the spirit of war. 


Duties of the Citizen, p. 678, 679. 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 219 


166. The Presumption against the Justice and 
Necessity of War 


The presumption is always against the justice and 
necessity of war. This we learn from the spirit of 
all rulers and nations towards foreign states. It is 
partial, unjust. Individuals may be disinterested; but 
nations have no feeling of the tie of brotherhood to 
their race. A base selfishness is the principle on which 
the affairs of nations are commonly conducted. A 
statesman is expected to take advantage of the weak- 
nesses and wants of other countries. How loose a 
morality governs the intercourse of states! What 
falsehoods and intrigues are licensed diplomacy! 
What nation regards another with true friend- 
ship? What nation makes sacrifices to another’s 
good? What nation is as anxious to perform its du- 
ties as to assert its rights? What nation chooses to 
suffer wrong, rather than to inflict it? What nation 
lays down the everlasting law of right, casts itself fear- 
lessly on its principles, and chooses to be poor or 
to perish rather than to do wrong? ‘Can communities 
so selfish, so unfriendly, so unprincipled, so unjust, be 
expected to wake righteous wars? Especially if with 
this selfishness are joined national prejudices, antip- 
athies, and exasperated passions, what else can be ex- 
pected in the public policy but inhumanity and crime? 
An individual, we know, cannot be trusted in his own 
cause, to measure his own claims, to avenge his own 
wrongs; and the civil magistrate, an impartial umpire, 
has been substituted as the only means of justice. But 
nations are even more unfit than individuals to judge 


220 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


in their own cause; more prone to push their rights 
to excess, and to trample on the rights of others; be- 
cause nations are crowds, and crowds are unawed by 
opinion, and more easily inflamed by sympathy into 
madness. Is there not, then, always a presumption 
against the Justice of war? 


On War (1838), p. 676. 


167. To Question the Justice of a War is Our 
Duty and Our Right 


I know it will be asked, ‘‘And is not the citizen 
bound to fight at the call of his government? Does 
not his commission absolve him from the charge of 
murder or enormous crime? Is not obedience to the 
sovereign power the very foundation on which society 
rests?’ I answer, “Has the duty of obeying govern- 
ment no bounds? Is the human sovereign a God? 
Is his sovereignty absolute? If he command you to 
slay a parent, must you obey? If he forbid you to 
worship God, must you obey? Have you no right to 
judge his acts? Have you no self-direction? Is there 
no unchangeable right which the ruler cannot touch? 
Is there no higher standard than human law?”’ ‘These 
questions answer themselves. A declaration of war 
cannot sanction wrong, or turn murder into a virtu- 
ous deed. Undoubtedly, as a general rule, the citizen 
is bound to obey the authorities under which he lives. 
No difference of opinion as to the mere expediency of 
measures will warrant opposition. Even in cases of 
doubtful right he may submit his judgment to the law. 
But when called to do what his conscience clearly pro- 
nounces wrong, he must not waver. No outward law 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 221 


is so sacred as the voice of God in his own breast. 
He cannot devolve on rulers an act so solemn as the 
destruction of fellow-beings convicted of no offence. 
For no act will more solemn inquisition be made at the 
bar of God.. 

I maintain that the citizen, before fighting, is bound 
to inquire into the justice of the cause which he is called 
to maintain with blood, and bound to withhold his 
hand if his conscience condemn the cause. On this 
point he is able to judge. No political question, in- 
deed, can be determined so easily as this of war. War 
can be justified only by plain, palpable necessity; by 
unquestionable wrongs, which, as patient trial has 
proved, can in no other way be redressed; by the ob- 
stinate, persevering invasion of solemn and unques- 
tionable rights. ‘The justice of war is not a mystery 
for cabinets to solve. It is not a state secret which 
we must take on trust. It lies within our reach. We 
are bound to examine it. 


On War (1838), p. 675. 


168. Conscientious Objection to War is Justifiable 


Undoubtedly it will be objected, that if one law of 
the state may in any way be resisted, then all may be, 
and so government must fall. This is precisely the 
argument on which the doctrine of passive obedience 
to the worst tyrannies rests. The absolutionist says, 
“If one government may be overturned, none can 
stand. Your right of revolution is nothing but the 
right of anarchy, of universal misrule.” ‘The reply 
is in both instances the same. Extreme cases speak 
for themselves. We must put confidence in the 


222 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


common-sense of men, and suppose them capable of 
distinguishing between reasonable laws and those 
which require them to commit manifest crimes. The 
objection which we are considering rests on the sup- 
position that a declaration of war is a common act of 
legislation, bearing no strong marks of distinction 
from other laws, and consequently to be obeyed as im- 
plicitly as all. But it is broadly distinguished. A 
declaration of war sends us forth to destroy our fellow- 
creatures, to carry fire, sword, famine, bereavement, 
want, and woe into the fields and habitations of our 
brethren; whilst Christianity, conscience, and all the 
pure affections of our nature, call us to love our breth- 
ren, and to die, if need be, for their good. And from 
whence comes this declaration of war? From men 
who would rather die than engage in unjust or unnec- 
essary conflict? Too probably from men to whom 
Christianity is a name, whose highest law is honor, 
who are used to avenge their private wrongs and 
defend their reputations by shedding blood, and who, 
in public as in private life, defy the laws of God. 
Whover, at such men’s dictation, engages in war with- 
out solemnly consulting conscience, and inquiring into 
the justice of the cause, contracts great guilt, nor 
can the “right of war,” which such men claim as rulers, 
absolve him from the crimes and woes of the con- 
flict in which he shares. 


On War (1838), p. 677. 


169. Beneficence, not Conquest, the True Glory 
of Nations 


Important service may be rendered! to the cause of 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 223 


peace by communicating and enforcing just and ele- 
vated sentiments in relation to the true honor of rul- 
ers. Let us teach that the prosperity, and not the 
extent, of a state is the measure of a ruler’s glory; 
that the brute force and crooked policy which annex 
a conquest are infinitely inferior to the wisdom, jus- 
tice, and beneficence which make a country happy; and 
that the earth holds not a more abandoned monster 
than the sovereign who, intrusted with the dearest 
interests of a people, commits them to the dreadful 
hazards of war, that he may extend his prostituted 
power, and fill the earth with his worthless name. 
Let us exhibit to the honor and veneration of mankind 
the character of the Christian ruler, who, disdaining 
the cheap and vulgar honor of a conqueror, aspires 
to a new and more enduring glory; who, casting away 
the long-tried weapons of intrigue and violence, ad- 
heres with a holy and unshaken confidence to justice 
-and philanthropy, as a nation’s best defence; and who 
considers himself as exalted by God only that he may 
shed down blessings and be as a beneficent deity to 
the world. 

To these instructions, in relation to the true glory 
of rulers, should be added just sentiments as to the 
glory of nations. Let us teach that the honor of a 
nation consists, not in the forced and reluctant sub- 
mission of other states, but in equal laws and free 
institutions, in cultivated fields and prosperous cit- 
ies; in the development of intellectual and moral 
power, in the diffusion of knowledge, in magnanimity 
and justice, in the virtues and blessings of peace. Let 
us never be weary in reprobating that infernal spirit 


224 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


of conquest by which a nation becomes the terror and 
abhorrence of the world, and inevitably prepares a 
tomb—at best a splendid tomb—for its own liberties 
and prosperity. Nothing has been more common 
than for nations to imagine themselves great and glor- 
ious on the ground of foreign conquest, when at home 
they have been loaded with chains. Cannot these 
gross and monstrous delusions be scattered? Can 
nothing be done to persuade Christian nations to en- 
gage in a new and untried race of glory, in generous 
competitions, in a noble contest for superiority in wise 
legislation and internal improvements, in the spirit 
of liberty and humanity? 
On War (1816), p. 649. 


170. The Solemn Responsibility of Declaring War 


If any action on earth ought to be performed with 
trembling, with deep prostration before God, with the 
most solemn inquisition into motives, with the most 
reverent consultation of conscience, it is a declaration 
of war. This stands alone among acts of legislation. 
It has no parallel. These few words, ‘Let war be,” 
have the power of desolation which belongs to earth- 
quakes and lightnings; they may stain the remotest 
seas with blood; may wake the echoes of another 
hemisphere with the thunders of artillery; may carry 
anguish into a thousand human abodes. No scheme 
of aggrandizement, no doubtful claims, no uncertain 
fears, no anxiety to establish a balance of power, will 
justify this act. It can find no justification but in 
plain, stern necessity, in unquestionable justice, in per- 
severing wrongs, which all other and long-tried means 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM) 225 


have failed to avert. Terrible is the responsibility, 
beyond that of all others, which falls on him who in- 
volves nations in war. He has no excuse for rashness, 
passion, or private ends. He ought at such a moment 
to forget, to annihilate himself. The spirit of God 
and justice should alone speak and act through him. 
To commit this act rashly, passionately, selfishly, is 
to bring on himself the damnation of a thousand mur- 
ders. An act of legislation, commanding fifty thou- 
sand men to be assembled on yonder common, there 
to be shot, stabbed, trampled under horses’ feet until 
their shrieks and agonies should end in death, would 
thrill us with horror; and such an act is a declaration 
of war; and a government which can perform it, with- 
out the most solemn sense of responsibility and the 
clearest admonitions of duty, deserves, in expiation of 
its crime, to endure the whole amount of torture which 
it has inflicted on its fellow-creatures. 


On War (1838), p. 674. 


171. Political Sovereignty Should not Imply the 
Right to Make War. 


I proceed to a cause of insensibility to the evils of 
war, and one of immense power. I refer to the com- 
mon and almost universal belief that the right of 
war belongs to civil government. Let us be just to 
human nature. The idea of “right” has always 
mixed itself with war, and this has kept out of view 
the real character of most of the conflicts of nations. 
The sovereign, regarding the right of war as an es- 
sential attribute of sovereignty, has on this ground 
ascribed a legitimacy to all national hostilities, and 


226 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


has never dreamed that in most of his wars he was a 
murderer. So the subject has thought himself bound 
to obey his sovereign, and, on this ground, has ac- 
quitted himself of crime, has perhaps imputed to him- 
self merit, in fighting and slaughtering for the defence 
of the most iniquitous claims. Here lies the delusion, 
which we should be most anxious to remove. It 1s 
the legality ascribed to war, on account of its being 
waged by government, which produces insensibility to 
its horrors and crimes. When a notorious robber, 
seized by Alexander, asked the conqueror of the 
world whether he was not a greater robber than him- 
self, the spirit of the hero repelled the title with in- 
dignation. And why so? Had he not, without prov- 
ocation and cause, spoiled cities and realms, whilst the 
robber had only plundered individuals and single dwell- 
ings? Had he not slaughtered ten thousand innocent 
fellow-creatures for one victim who had fallen under 
the robber’s knife? And why, then, did the arch- 
robber disclaim the name, and seriously believe that 
he could not justly be confounded with rufhans? Be- 
cause he was a king, the head of a state, and as such 
authorized to make war. Here was the shelter for 
his conscience and his fame. Had the robber, after 
addressing his question to Alexander, turned to the 
Macedonian soldier, and said to him, “‘Are you not, 
too, a greater robber than I? WHlave not your hands 
been busier in pillage? Are they not dyed more 
deep in innocent blood?” ‘The unconscious soldier, 
like his master, would have repelled the title; and 
why? “I ama subject,” he would have replied, ‘‘and 
bound to obey my sovereign; and, in fulfilling a duty, 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 227 


I cannot be sunk to the level of the most hated crim- 
inal.”’ ‘Thus king and subject take refuge in the 
right of war which inheres in sovereignty, and thus 
the most terrible crimes are perpetrated with little 
reproach. 


On ar (1838)5p,073. 


172. Martyrs for Peace 


Unhappily, public men under all governments are, 
of all moral guides, the most unsafe, the last for a 
Christian to follow. Public life is thought to absolve 
men from the strict obligations of truth and Justice. 
To wrong an adverse party or another country, is 
not reprobated as are wrongs in private life. Thus 
duty is dethroned; thus the majesty of virtue insulted 
in the administration of nations. Public men are ex- 
pected to think more of their own elevation than of 
their country. Is the city of Washington the most 
virtuous spot in this republic? Is it the school of 
incorruptible men? ‘The hall of Congress, disgraced 
by so many brawls, swayed by local interest and party 
intrigues, in which the right of petition is trodden 
under foot, is this the oracle from which the responses 
of justice come forth? Public bodies want conscience. 
Men acting in masses shift off responsibility on one 
another. Multitudes never blush. If these things 
be true, then I maintain that the Christian has not a 
right to take part in war blindly, confidingly, at the 
call of his rulers. To shed the blood of fellow- 
creatures is too solemn a work to be engaged in lightly. 
Let him not put himself, a tool, into wicked hands. 
Let him not meet on the field his brother man, his 


228 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


brother Christian, in a cause on which heaven frowns. 
Let him bear witness against unholy wars, as his coun- 
try’s greatest crimes. If called to take part in them, 
let him deliberately refuse. If martial law seize on 
him, let him submit. If hurried to prison, let him 
submit. If brought thence to be shot, let him submit. 
There must be martyrs to peace as truly as to other 
principles of our religion. ‘The first Christians chose 
to die rather than obey the laws of the state which 
commanded them to renounce their Lord. ‘Death 
rather than crime’; such is the good man’s watch- 
word, such the Christian’s vow. Let him be faithful 
unto death. 
On War, (1838), p. 677. 


173. Self-Defense a Valid but Rare Occasion of War 


If indeed, my country were invaded by hostile armies, 
threatening, without disguise its rights, liberties, and 
dearest interests, I should strive to repel them, just as 
I should repel a criminal who should enter my house 
to slay what I hold most dear, and what is intrusted 
to my care. But I cannot confound with such a case 
the common instances of war. In general, war is the 
work of ambitious men, whose principles have gained 
no strength from the experience of public life, whose 
policy is colored if not swayed by personal views or 
party interests, who do not seek peace with a single 
heart, who, to secure doubtful rights, perplex the for- 
eign relations of the state, spread jealousies at home 
and abroad, enlist popular passions on the side of 
strife, commit themselves too far for retreat, and are 
then forced to leave to the arbitration of the sword 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 229 


what an impartial umpire could easily have arranged. 

The question of peace and war is too often settled 

for a country by men in whom a Christian, a lover of 

his race, can put little or no trust; and, at the bidding 

of such men, is he to steep his hands in human blood? 
Introductory Remarks, p. 11. 


174. d Fellow-feeling for Humanity Renders War 
Abhorrent 


For one, I look on war with a horror which no 
words can express. I have long wanted patience to 
read of battles. Were the world of my mind, no 
man would fight for glory; for the name of a com- 
mander who has no other claim to respect, seldom 
passes my lips, and the want of sympathy drives him 
from my mind. ‘The thought of man, God’s immortal 
child, butchered by his brother; the thought of sea 
and land stained with human blood by human hands, 
of women and children buried under the ruins of be- 
sieged cities, of the resources of empires and the mighty 
powers of nature all turned by man’s malignity into 
engines of torture and destruction; this thought gives 
to earth the semblance of hell. I shudder as among 
demons. I cannot now, as I once did, talk lightly, 
thoughtlessly of fighting with this or that nation. 
That nation is no longer an abstraction to me. It is 
no longer a vague mass. It spreads out before me 
unto individuals, in a thousand interesting forms and 
relations. It consists of husbands and wives, parents 
and children, who love one another as I love my own 
home. It consists of affectionate women and sweet 
children. It consists of Christians united with me to 


230 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


the common Saviour, and in whose spirit I reverence 
the likeness of his divine virtue. It consists of a vast 
multitude of laborers at the plough and in the work- 
shop, whose toils I sympathize with, whose burden I 
should rejoice to lighten, and for whose elevation I 
have pleaded. It consists of men of science, taste, 
genius, whose writings have beguiled my solitary 
hours, and given life to my intellect and best affections. 
Here is the nation which I am called to fight with, into 
whose families [ must send mourning, whose fall or 
humiliation I must seek through blood. I cannot do 
it, without a clear commission from God. 
Introductory Remarks, p. 10. 


175. dA True Idea of National Honor 


I have written once and again on war,—a hackneyed 
subject, as it is called, yet, one would think, too ter- 
rible ever to become a commonplace. Is this insanity 
never to cease? At this moment, whilst I write, two 
of the freest and most enlightened nations, having one 
origin, bound together above all others by mutual de- 
pendence, by the interweaving of interests, are thought 
by some to be on the brink of war. False notions of 
national honor, as false and unholy as those of the 
duellist, do most towards fanning this fire. Great 
nations, like great boys, place their honor in resisting 
insult and in fighting well. One would! think the time 
had gone by in which nations needed to rush to arms 
to prove that they were not cowards. If there is one 
truth, which history has taught, it is, that communities 
in all stages of society, from the most barbarous 
to the most civilized, have sufficient courage. No 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 231 


people can charge upon its conscience that it has 
not shed blood enough in proof of its valor. Al- 
most any man, under the usual stimulants of the 
Campyecan stand wire, )<lhel) peor. wretch, / enlisted. 
from a dram-shop and turned into the ranks, soon 
fights like a “hero.” Must France, and England, 
and America, after so many hard-fought fields, go to 
war to disprove the charge of wanting spirit? Is it 
not time that the point of honor should undergo some 
change, that some glimpses at least of the true glory 
of a nation should be caught by rulers and people? 
“It is the honor of a man to pass over a transgression,” 
and so it is of states. To be wronged is no disgrace. 
To bear wrong generously, till every means of concilia- 
tion is exhausted; to recoil with manly dread from the 
slaughter of our fellow-creatures; to put confidence in 
the justice which other nations will do to our motives; 
to have that consciousness of courage which will make 
us scorn the reproach of cowardice; to feel that there ts 
something grander than the virtue of savages; to desire 
peace for the world as well as ourselves, and to shrink 
from kindling a flame which may involve the world; 
these are the principles and feelings which do honor 
to a people. 
Introductory Remarks, p. 10. 


176. The Bigotry of Christian Sects has 
Fostered War 


It is a painful truth, which ought not to be sup- 
pressed, that the pacific influence of the gospel has been 
greatly obstructed by the disposition which has pre- 
vailed in all ages, and especially among Christian min- 


232 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


isters, to give importance to the peculiarities of sects, 
and to rear walls of partition between different de- 
nominations. Shame ought to cover the face of the 
believer, when he remembers that under no religion 
have intolerance and persecution raged more fiercely 
than under the gospel of the meek and forbearing 
Saviour. Christians have made the earth to reek 
with blood and to resound with denunciation. Can 
we wonder that, while the spirit of war has been cher- 
ished in the very bosom of the church, it has continued 
to ravage among the nations? Were the true spirit of 
Christianity to be inculcated with but half the zeal 
which has been wasted on doubtful and disputed doc- 
trines, a sympathy, a co-operation might in a very 
short time be produced among Christians of every 
nation, most propitious to the pacification of the world. 
In consequence of the progress of knowledge and the 
extension of commerce, Christians of both hemispheres 
are at this moment brought nearer to one another than 
at any former period; and an intercourse, founded on 
religious sympathies, is gradually connecting the most 
distant regions. What a powerful weapon is fur- 
nished by this new bond of union to the ministers and 
friends of peace! Should not the auspicious moment 
be seized to inculcate on all Christians, in all regions, 
that they owe their first allegiance to their common 
Lord in heaven, whose first, and last, and great com- 
mand is, love? Should they not be taught to look with 
a shuddering abhorrence on war, which continually 
summons to the field of battle, under opposing stand- 
ards, the followers of the same Saviour, and com- 
mands them to imbrue their hands in each others’ 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM = 233 


blood? Once let Christians of every nation be 
brought to espouse the cause of peace with one heart 
and one voice, and their labor will not be in vain in the 
Lord. Human affairs will rapidly assume a new and 
milder aspect. ‘The predicted ages of peace will 
dawn on the world. Public opinion will be purified. 
The false lustre of the hero will grow dim. A nobler 
order of character will be admired and diffused. The 
kingdoms of the world will gradually become the king- 
doms of God and of his Christ. 
On War (1816), p. 651. 


177. Moral Courage Superior to Military Courage 


The common courage of armies is equally worthless 
with that of the pirate and the savage. A considerable 
part of almost every army, so far from deriving their 
resolution from love of country and a sense of justice, 
can hardly be said to have a country, and have been 
driven into the ranks by necessities which were gener- 
ated by vice. These are the brave soldiers, whose 
praises we hear; brave, from the absence of all re- 
flection, prodigal of life, because their vices have 
robbed life of its blessings; brave, from sympathy; 
brave, from the thirst of plunder; and especially 
brave, because the sword of martial law is hanging 
over their heads. Accordingly, military courage 1s 
easily attained by the most debased and unprincipled 
men. The common drunkard of the streets, who is 
enlisted in a fit of intoxication, when thrown into the 
ranks among the unthinking and profane, subjected 
to the rigor of martial discipline, familiarized by ex- 
posure to the idea of danger, and menaced with death 


234 AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 


if he betray a symptom of fear, becomes as brave as 
his oficer, whose courage may often be traced to the 
same dread of punishment, and to fear of severer 
infamy than attends on the cowardice of the common 
soldier. Let the tribute of honor be freely and lib- 
erally given to the soldier of principle, who exposes 
his life for a cause which his conscience approves, and 
who mingles clemency and mercy with the joy of tri- 
umph. But as for the multitude of military men, who 
regard war as a trade by which to thrive, who hire 
themselves to fight and slay in any cause, and who 
destroy their fellow-beings with as little concern as 
the husbandman does the vermin that infest his fields, 
I know no class of men on whom admiration can more 
unjustly and more injuriously be bestowed. Let us 
labor, my brethren, to direct the admiration and love 
of mankind to another and infinitely higher kind of 
greatness, to that true magnanimity which is prodigal 
of ease and life in the service of God and mankind, 
and which proves its courage by unshaken adherence, 
amidst scorn and danger, to truth and virtue. Let the 
records of past ages be explored, to rescue from obliv- 
ion, not the wasteful conqueror, whose path was as the 
whirlwind, but the benefactors of the human race, 
martyrs to the interests of freedom and religion, men 
who have broken the chain of the slave, who have 
traversed the earth to shed consolation into the cell 
of the prisoner, or whose sublime faculties have ex- 
plored and revealed useful and ennobling truths. 
Can nothing be done to hasten the time when to such 
men eloquence and poetry shall offer their glowing 
homage,—when for these the statue and monument 


AGAINST WAR AND MILITARISM 235 


shall be erected, the canvass be animated, and the 
laurel entwined,—and when to these the admiration of 
the young shall be directed as their guides and fore- 
runners to glory and immortality? 


On War, p. 650. 


AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 


178. The Conscientious Christian will First Evict 
Alcoholism from His Own Table 


Judge, as in the sight of God, whether you are not 
bound to use your whole influence in banishing the use 
of spirits, as one of the most pernicious habits, from 
the community. If you were to see, as a consequence 
of this beverage, a loathsome and mortal disease break- 
ing out occasionally in all ranks, and sweeping away 
crowds in the most depressed portion of society, would 
you not lift up your voices against it? And is not an 
evil more terrible than pestilence the actual frequent 
result of the use of spirituous liquors? ‘That use you 
are bound to discourage: and how? By abstaining 
wholly yourselves, by excluding ardent spirits wholly 
from your tables, by giving your whole weight and 
authority to abstinence. ‘This practical, solemn testi- 
mony, borne by the good and respectable, cannot but 
spread a healthful public sentiment through the whole 
community. This is especially our duty at the present 
moment, when a great combined effort of religious 
and philanthropic men is directed against this evil, and 
when an impression has been made on the community 
surpassing the most sanguine hopes. At the present 
moment, he who uses ardent spirits or introduces them 
into his hospitalities, virtually arrays himself against 
the cause of temperance and humanity. He not 

236 


AGAINST INTEMPERANCE Za 


merely gives an example to his children and his do- 
mestics, which he may one day bitterly rue; he with- 
stands the good in their struggles for the virtue and 
happiness of mankind. He forsakes the standard of 
social reform and throws himself into the ranks of its 
foes. | Hi 

On Temperance, p. 113. 


179. Government Prohibition of Spirituous Liquors 


Let me urge on those who would bring out and 
elevate their higher nature, to abstain from the use 
of spirituous liquors. This bad habit is distinguished 
from all others by the ravages it makes on the reason, 
the intellect; and this effect is produced to a mournful 
extent, even when drunkenness is escaped. Nota few 
men, called temperate, and who have thought them- 
selves such, have learned, on abstaining from the use 
of ardent spirits, that for years their minds had been 
clouded, impaired by moderate drinking, without their 
suspecting the injury. Multitudes.in this city are 
bereft of half their intellectual energy, by a degree of 
indulgence which passes for innocent. Of all the foes 
of the working class, this is the deadliest. Nothing 
- has done more to keep down this class, to destroy their 
self-respect, to rob them of their just influence in the 
community, to render profitless the means of improve- 
ment within their reach, than the use of ardent spirits 
as a drink. I call on working men to take hold of the 
cause of temperance as peculiarly their cause. ‘These 
remarks are the more needed, in consequence of the 
efforts made far and wide to annul at the present mo- 
ment a recent law for the suppression of the sale of 


238 AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 


ardent spirits in such quantities as favor intemperance. 
I know that there are intelligent and good men who 
believe that, in enacting this law, government tran- 
scended its limits, left its true path, and established a 
precedent for legislative interference with all our pur- 
suits and pleasures. No one here looks more jeal- 
ously on government than myself. But I maintain that 
this is a case which stands by itself, which can be con- 
founded with no other, and on which government, 
from its very nature and end, is peculiarly bound to 
act. Is government a usurper, does it wander be- 
yond its sphere, by imposing restraints on an article 
which does no imaginable good, which can plead no 
benefit conferred on body or mind, which unfits the 
citizen for the discharge of his duty to his country, 
and which, above all, stirs up men to the perpetration 
of most of the crimes from which it is the highest 
and most solemn office of government to protect so- 
ciety? 
Self Culture, p. 22: 


180. The Sale of Ardent Spirits must be Suppressed 


We should discourage the sale of ardent spirits. 
What ought not to be used as a beverage, ought not 
to be sold as such. What the good of the community 
requires us to expel, no man has a moral right to 
supply. That intemperance is dreadfully multiplied 
by the number of licensed shops for the retailing of 
spirits, we all know. ‘That these should be shut, every 
good man desires. Law, however, cannot shut them 
except in a limited extent, or only in a few favored 
parts of the country. Law is here the will of the 


AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 239 


people, and the legislature can do little unless sus- 
tained by the public voice. To form, then, an en- 
lightened and vigorous public sentiment, which will 
demand the suppression of these licensed nurseries of 
intemperance, is a duty to which every good man is 
bound, and a service in which each may take a share. 
And not only should the vending of spirits in these 
impure haunts be discouraged; the vending of them 
by respectable men should be regarded as a great 
public evils The retailer takes shelter under the 
wholesale dealer, from whom he purchases the per- 
nicious draught; and has he not a right so to do? 
Can we expect that he should shrink from spreading 
on a small scale what others spread largely without 
rebuke? Can we expect his conscience to be sensitive, 
when he treads in the steps of men of reputation? Of 
the character of those who vend spirits I do not judge. 
They grew up in the belief of the innocence of the 
trafic, and this conviction they may sincerely retain. 
But error, though sincere, is error still. Right and 
wrong do not depend on human judgment or human 
will. ‘Truth and duty may be hidden for ages; but they 
remain unshaken as God’s throne; and when, in the 
course of His providence, they are made known to one 
or a few, they must be proclaimed, whoever may be 
opposed. Truth, truth, is the hope of the world. 
Let it be spoken in kindness, but with power. 
On Temperance, p. 114. 


181. Intemperance Due to Want of Self-Respect 


A cause of intemperance is the want of self-respect 
which the present state of society induces among the 


240 AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 


poor and laborious. Just as far as wealth is the ob- 
ject of worship, the measure of men’s importance, the 
badge of distinction, so far there will be a tendency 
to self-contempt and self-abandonment among those 
whose lot gives them no chance of its acquisition. 
Such naturally feel as if the great good of life were 
denied them. ‘They see themselves neglected. ‘Their 
condition cuts them off from communication with the 
improved. ‘They think they have little stake in the 
general weal. ‘They do not feel as if they had a char- 
acter to lose. Nothing reminds them of the greatness 
of their nature. Nothing teaches them that in their 
obscure lot they may secure the highest good on earth. 
Catching from the general tone of society the ruinous 
notion that wealth is honor as well as happiness, they 
see in their narrow lot nothing to inspire self-respect. 
In this delusion they are not more degraded than the 
prosperous; they but echo the voice of society; but to 
them the delusion brings a deeper, immediate ruin. 
By sinking them in their own eyes it robs them of a 
powerful protection against low vices. It prepares 
them for coarse manners, for gross pleasures, for de- 
scent to brutal degradation. Society, in all its ranks, 
especially in the highest, is bound in justice to resist 
the evil; and not only justice, but benevolence pleads 
with us to spare no efforts for its prevention or cure. 
The thought that in the bosom of our society are 
multitudes standing on the brink of perdition, multi- 
tudes who are strongly tempted to debase and destroy 
their rational nature, to sink into brutal excess, to seal 
their ruin in this world and in the world to come, 
ought to weigh on us as a burden, ought to inspire 


AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 241 


deeper concern than the visitation of pestilence, ought 
to rouse every man who has escaped this degradation 
to do what he may to rescue the fallen, and, still more, 
to save the falling. 

On Temperance, p. 104. 


182. The Debasing Power of Intemperance 
in Every Rank of Society 


We are apt to speak as if the laborious, uneducated, 
unimproved, were alone in danger, and as if we our- 
selves had no interest in this cause, except as others 
are concerned. But it is not so; multitudes in all 
classes are in danger. In truth, when we recall the sad 
histories of not a few in every circle, who once stood 
among the firmest and then yielded to temptation, we 
are taught that none of us should dismiss fear,—that 
we too may be walking on the edge of the abyss. The 
young are exposed to intemperance, for youth wants 
forethought, loves excitement, is apt to place happiness 
in gayety, is prone to convivial pleasure, and too often 
finds or makes this the path to hell; nor are the old 
secure, for age unnerves the mind as well as the body, 
and silently steals away the power of self-control. 
The idle are in scarcely less peril than the over-worked 
laborer; for uneasy cravings spring up in the vacant 
mind, and the excitement of intoxicating draughts is 
greedily sought as an escape from the intolerable 
weariness of having nothing to do. Men of a coarse, 
unrefined character fall easily into intemperance, be- 
cause they see little in its brutality to disgust them. 
It is a sadder thought that men of genius and sensibil- 
ity are hardly less exposed. Strong action of the mind 


24.2 AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 


is even more exhausting than the toil of the hands. 
It uses up, if I may say so, the finer spirits, and leaves 
either a sinking of the system which craves for tonics, 
or a restlessness which seeks relief in deceitful seda- 
tives. Besides, it is natural for minds of great energy 
to hunger for strong excitement; and this, when not 
found in innocent occupation and amusement, is too 
often sought in criminal indulgence. 
On Temperance, p. 101. 


183. Intemperance Comes with Noiseless Step 


and Insidious Habit 


Do not say that I exaggerate your exposure to in- 
temperance. Let no man say, when he thinks of the 
drunkard broken in health and spoiled of intellect, “I 
can never so fall.” He thought as little of falling in 
his earlier years. ‘he promise of his youth was as 
bright as yours; and even after he began his down- 
ward course he was as unsuspicious as the firmest 
around him, and would have repelled as indignantly 
the admonition to beware of intemperance. ‘The dan- 
ger of this vice lies in its almost imperceptible ap- 
proach. Few who perish by it know its first accesses. 
Youth does not see or suspect drunkenness in the 
sparkling beverage which quickens all its susceptibilities 
of joy. The invalid does not see it in the cordial 
which his physician prescribes, and which gives new 
tone to his debilitated organs. ‘The man of thought 
and genius detects no palsying poison in the draught 
which seems a spring of inspiration to intellect and 
imagination. The lover of social pleasure little 
dreams that the glass which animates conversation will 


AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 243 


ever be drunk in solitude, and will sink him too 
low for the intercourse in which he now delights. 
Intemperance comes with noiseless step, and binds 
its first cords with a touch too light to be felt. 
This truth of mournful experience should be treas- 
ured up by us all, and should influence the habits 
and arrangements of domestic and social life in every 
class of the community. 
On Temperance, p. 102. 





BIBLIOGRAPHY 


There is no complete collection of the extant writings of 
Channing, but the bulk of them is contained in the following 
volumes: 

The Works of William E. Channing, D.D. 6 vols. 1846. 
(The first four volumes were compiled and authorized 
by Channing before his death.) 

The most available edition is that issued in one volume by 
the American Unitarian Association in 1886. Page 
references in the present work are to this edition. 

The Perfect Life. 1878. A volume containing twelve dis- 
courses preached during the last ten years of Channing’s 
life, selected by William Henry Channing, the nephew, 
biographer and literary legatee of W. E. Channing. 

Life of William Ellery Channing, D.D. 3 vols. 1848. 

Reissued by the American Unitarian Association in one 
volume, 1880 (6th edition 1889). (It is this work 
which is referred to in the present volume as “Life.” 
Page references are to the American Unitarian Asso- 
ciation edition. ) 


In addition to the sermons and addresses included in the 
WV orks the following exist only in pamphlet form, some of them 
being cited in W. H. Channing’s “Life.” 

Sermon for the Ordination of John Codman, Dorchester, 

1808. 

Fast Day Sermon, 1810, Boston. 

Fast Day Sermon, 1812, Boston. 

Sermon for the Day of Humiliation and Prayer, Boston, 

1812. 
245 


246 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Two Sermons on Infidelity, Boston, 1813. 

Discourse at the Solemn Festival in Commemoration of 
the Deliverance of the Christian World from Military 
Despotism, Boston, 1814. 

Sermon on the State of the Country, Boston, 1814. 

Letter to Rev. S. C. Thacher, 1815. 

Remarks on Rev. Dr. Worcester’s Reply (to above) 1815. 

Sermon on Religion, a Social Principle, Boston, 1820. 


One of Dr. Channing’s most notable utterances is the Intro- 
duction to Discourses, Essays and Miscellanies, Boston, 
1830. 


‘There are articles by Dr. Channing in 
The Christian Disciple, Vol. 1 (1813), on Humility in the 
Investigation of Truth. 
Vol. 1-2, On Serious Preaching 
Vol. 2, On the Events of the Year 
Vol. 2, Eulogy on Charles I’. Parsons. 


A valuable gleaning of brief but interesting passages from 
the minor papers of Channing, too brief for use in this collec- 
tion is, 

Passages from Dr. Channing’s Notebook, Boston, 1887, 

Edited by Grace Ellery Channing. 


The Correspondence of Channing, in spite of its intrinsic 
importance, is but partly preserved. The Life contains excerpts 
from some letters; but the best salvage is the 
Correspondence of William Ellery Channing, D.D., and 
Lucy Aiken, 1826-1842, Boston, 1874. 


Other letters of value, as well as passages copied by Miss 
Peabody from the original (unpublished) mss. of Channing, 
are fortunately preserved in 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 247 


Reminiscences of William ‘Ellery Channing, D.D., by 
Elizabeth P. Peabody, Boston, 1880. 


Sundry letters, some of them noteworthy, are to be found 
in the biographies of certain of Channing’s associates and 
friends, in particular the Lives of 

James Freeman Clarke, by E. E. Hale, 1891. 

Henry Ware Jr. by John Ware, 18406. 

Jared Sparks, by H. B. Adams, 1874. 

Ezra Stiles Gannett, by W. C. Gannett, 1875. 

Charles Follen (by his wife, Vol. 1 of his Works), 1842. 

Theodore Parker, by John Weiss, 1864. 


There are entries in the catalogues of the Libraries of the 
Theological School of Harvard University, and Meadville 
Theological School, indicating the existence of considerable 
original material, such as 

Draft of a Course of Study for Divinity School Students 

(Harvard). 
Ms. Letter to Dr. Nichols, Portland, April 20, 1820, 
(Harvard). 


AUXILIARY WorKS 


Two excellent bibliographies of works on Channing are to 
be found in 
Memorial History of Boston, Justin Winsor, Vol. IV, p. 303. 
Heralds of the Liberal Faith, Samuel A. Eliot, Vol. IT, 
PO sls elooa(io10):. 
Indispensable information about Channing is given in 


William Ellery Channing, Minister of Religion, John 
White Chadwick, 1903. (The standard brief biog- 


raphy. ) 


248 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


(A condensation of the above in Vol. I of the Works, 1903 
Edition. ) 


See also 

Channing, A Centennial Memory, Charles ‘T. Brooks, 
1880. . 

Four American Leaders, Charles W. Eliot, 1907. 

William Ellery Channing, Paul Revere Frothingham, 1903. 

Channing's Baltimore Sermon, Charles H. Lyttle, 1919. 

“Dr. Channing’s Progress.’ The Christian Register, March 
8, 1883. 

Channing as a Sccial Reformer, W. M. Salter, Unitarian 
Review, March, 1888. 

The Story of Channing, J. T. Sunderland (A.U.A. 
SractanNo.295)). 

Selected Thoughts from the Writings of William Ellery 
Channing, 1854. 

Selected Sermons of William Ellery Channing, Boston, 
1855. ; 

Selected Passages from William Ellery Channing, compiled 
by W. Gannett and Judson Fisher (Unity Tracts). 

Selected Thoughts, etc. compiled by Henry E. Miles (a 
republication in 1895 of the 1854 brochure). 

Channing, Discourses on War. Ed. Edwin D. Mead. 
Ginn & Co. 1903. (World Peace Foundation, Boston.) 

Channing and Christian History. Professor Francis A. 
Christie, Meadville Theological School Bulletin, April 
1925. 

Unitarianism and Social Change. Richard W. Boynton 
(1919). 


INDEX 


A 


Advantages of conceiving God as 
purely spiritual, 31 

Abolitionists, 169, 215 

Advice to his son on entering 
school, 66 

Affection and anxiety of our de- 
parted for us, 111 

“The Ages” (poem) xv 

Alexander the Great, 226 

America, her mission 
world, 198 

America, promise of her great- 
ness, 196 

America, rights of individual in, 
197 

Annexation of Texas, 83, 160, 200, 
201, 203, 214 

Ardent spirits, sale of must be 
suppressed, 181 

Associations, Remarks on, 119, 140 

Average man, conscience and in- 
telligence of, xiv 


to the 


B 


“Be thou the center, life, and sov- 
ereign of our souls,” 81 
Beauty an element of moral cul- 
ture, 62 
Beecher, Lyman, iv 
Beneficence, not conquest, 
glory of nations, 222 
Benevolence, disinterested, iv 
Best of all blessings, 39 
Better the romance of progress 
than the tameness of timidity in 
a minister, 88 


true 


249 


Bible, rational attitude toward, 
136 

Bigotry of Christian sects has 
fostered war, 231 

Bigotry, tyranny of, 133 

Birth, new, experience of, 22 

Birth of new man, 21 

Blessings, best of all, 39 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, xvi, 
I9I 

Bonaparte, address upon the fall 
Ole xxi 

Books, God be thanked for, 74 

Brooks, Phillips, ii 

Bryant, William Cullen, xv 


190, 


Cc 
Calvinism, fanatical and other- 
worldly, x 
Calvinism, moral argument 


against, 129 

Cambridge, Mass., iv 

Character of a man of piety, 32 

Cheverus, xxiii 

Christ, Love for, 43 

Christ’s character, Imitableness of, 
47, 65 

Christ’s cross is a symbol of vic- 
torious love, 47 

Christ’s reign, a vision of, 49 


Christian excellence, growth in, 
33 

Christian gospel, universality of, 
103 


Christian ideals, 134 

Christian minister a moral rey- 
olutionist, 89 

Christian ministry, 88 


250 


Christian ministry requires a 
spirit of self-sacrifice, 87 

Christian should not discriminate 
on grounds of race or social 
rank, 151 

Christian truth is infinite, creeds 
cannot contain it, 102 

Christian unity, true, 96 

Christian worship, 38, 39, 141 

Christian’s anticipation of fellow- 
ship beyond the veil, 108 

Christianity a rational religion, 
105 

Christianity, evidences of, 44, 51 

Christianity, great purpose of, 36, 
54, 107, 115 

Christianity, union with govern- 
ment, 183 

Christianity, present civilization 
hostile to, 157 

Christianity’s great design the in- 
finite perfection of the soul, 
18 

Church, 35, 98, 99, 102 

Church a retreat from the world, 
36 

Church, go forth from to do good, 
38 

Church universal, xxii, 42, 109 

Church, worship in spirit and 
truth, 37 

City, Man the greatest thing in, 
208 

City, personal interest in moral 
state of, 210 

Civilization, by products of, 174 

Clay, Henry, Letter to, xix 

Come to church to worship in 
spirit and in truth, 37 

Communion of saints, 41 

Conscientious Christian will first 
evict alcoholism from his own 
table, 236 

Conscientious objection to war 
justifiable, 221 

Contempt shown poverty engen- 


INDEX 


ders self-contempt in the poor, 
162 

Courts, ecclesiastical in Massa- 
chusetts, xxi 

Country, does it produce noble 
men, 195 

Covenant of the Universal Church 
is charity and beneficence, 97 

Creeds, 102 

The Creole, slaveship, xx 

Culture, intellectual, indispens- 
able to greatness in country, 194 

Curtis, George William, xxii 


D 


Debasement of God’s nature im- 
plied by the doctrine of vicari- 
ous atonement, 137 

Debility, nervous, viii 

Dedication of a liberal church, 
141 

Deism, Jeffersonian, ix 

Demands of a progressive age on 
the ministry, 84 

Demands of the age on the min- 
istry, 85, 89, 90 

Democracy, economic, xxiv 

Democracy, it prohibits the mo- 
nopoly of power, 190 

Determinism, mechanistic, of 
French skeptics, iv 

Denunciation of our religious op- 
ponents nullifies our Christian 
ideals, 134 

Depravity, utter, of man, iv 

Despair of our race is Unchris- 
tian, 8 

Distinguishing marks of a free 
mind, 120 

Divine grace needed to overcome 
lawless impulses and sudden 
temptations, 25 

Divine in the human, 16 

Divine mind, 24 

Divine principle, 15, 16 


INDEX 


Divine will, 26 

Divinity, man, ray of, 2 

Doctrine of human _ brotherhood 
inspired early Christianity, 51 

Duties of citizens, 205, 218 

Duty of citizen, that of question- 
ing war, 220 

Duty of the free states, 206 

Duty, sense of, God’s gift, 29 

Duty, that of statesman in respect 
to his people, 187 

Dwight, John S. ordination ser- 
mon, 87 

Dwight, Timothy, ix 


E 


Economy in education is perilous 
to the child, 93 

Education, 92, 93, 94 

Elevation of laboring classes, 2, 7, 
20, 117, 133, 159, 166 

Ellery, William, xiv 

Emancipation, 69, 78, 151 

Emancipation, advocacy of, xx, 83 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, xvi 

End for which Jesus came, 45 

Ends for which a liberal church is 
erected, 140 

Environment teaches the child, 91 

Essential thing in religion, 34 

Evidences of Christianity, 44, 51 

Evil, 67 

Examiner, Christian, (periodical), 
xvi 

Experience of new birth, 22 


F 


Faith, and patience, national, 205 
Faith of progress, 173 

Faneuil Hall, xix 

Father in heaven, 14 

Father’s love for persons, 27, 149 
Federal Street church, Boston, viii 
Federalist party, x 


251 


Fellow-feeling for humanity ren- 
ders war abhorrent, 229 

Fénélon, Francois, xvi, 15, 41, 13% 

Free mind, distinguishing marks of, 
120 

Freedom, mob-rule a denial of, 212 

Freedom of speech and of press 
essential to liberty, 203 

Freedom, spiritual, 18, 120, 122, 
123, 134, 175, 177, 179, 181, 183, 
187, 194 

French atheists, sarcasm of, vi 

Future life, 108, 111 


G 


Garrison, William Lloyd, xviii, 
xxi 

Go forth from the church to do 
good, 38 

God as purely spiritual, 31 

God be thanked for books, 74 

God revealed in universe and hu- 
manity, 17 

God, Likeness to, i 

God, seeking and redeeming love 
of, 23 

God’s gifts, sense of duty and 
idea of right, 29 

God’s nature, debasement of, im- 
plied by doctrine of vicarious 
atonement, 137 

Gospel, wonderful moral revolu- 
tion wrought by, 50 

Government, moral standards of 
in relation to citizens, 181 

Government, prohibition of spir- 
ituous liquors, 237 

Government, union with Chris- 
tianity, 183 

Great and blessed society of 
Jesus’ followers hereafter, 109 

Great enemies of society are not 
in its poorer ranks, 169 

Great question, does a country 
produce noble men, 195 


252 


Great purpose of Christianity, 19, 


SAL IO7 ears 
Great to be found everywhere, the 
truly, 4 


Great virtues bear the impress of 
self-denial, 56 

Greatness unselfish and unaffected, 
64 

Growing recognition 
duty to man, 154 

Growth in Christian excellence, 33 


of man’s 


H 


Hampden, 3 

Happiness, that of a nation bound 
up with virtue, 193 

Happy community, description of, 
207 

Heaven the freed and sanctified 
mind and fellowship thereof, 106 

Heaven the rendezvous and home 
of good, 107 

Hell, Spiritual conception of, 114 

History of intolerance of sects 
awakens grief, shame, and pity, 
100 

Home, sanctuary of, 77 

Honor due to all men, 30, 172 

How Christianity differs from 
society, 146 

Howard, 3 

Human brotherhood, doctrine of 
inspired early Christianity, 51 


Human life, true religion blends | 


itself with, 28 
Human nature, 15 
Human nature, dignity of, 1 
Human nature, divine parentag 
and obligations, 17 2 
Human nature, evidence of the 
Godlike in, 2 
Human nature, intellectual bon- 
dage is treason to, 130 
Human soul as the Kingdom of 
Christ, 53 


INDEX 


Humanity, above all nations, 192 
Humanity, church of, xxiii 
Humanity, grand idea of, 3 
Humanity, loyalty to, 156 
Humanity’s heroes and saints, 9 


I 
Illumination which came to Chan- 
ning, ili 
Imitableness of Christ's charac- 
ter, 47, 65 


Imperialist expansion in America, 
peril of, 200 : 

Independence of the individual 
mind and conscience, 117 

Independent decisions in religious 
questions the prerogative of 
every man, 116 

Individual rights in America, 197 

Inquisition, 68, 69 

Inspiring aid of our 
beings, 145 

Integrity of mind, xiii 

Intellectual bondage is treason to 
human nature, 130 

Intemperance, 236 

Intemperance comes with noise- 
less step and insidious habit, 
242 

Intemperance due to want of 
self-respect, 239 

Intolerance of sects, 100 

Introductory remarks, 7 

Isabella of Castile, 68 


fellow 


J 


Jesus can impart to us nothing so 
precious as his own experience, 
46 

Jesus, end for which he came, 45 

Jesus, universal benevolence, of, 
44 

Jesus Christ, brother, friend and 
saviour, 145 

Jews, 68 


INDEX 


Judaism, 141 

Justice of war, to question is 
right and duty of citizens, 220 

Justice, first element of a nation’s 
honor, 183 

Justice, presumption against it 
and need for war, 219 


K 


Kneeland, Abner, xxii 


L 


Labor, rise of, master movement 
of our age, 159 

Laboring classes, 
2, 7, 20, 48, 527-54, 
159, 166 

Law, impartial administration of, 
211 


elevation of, 
TU 7pat33; 


Lawless impulses and _ sudden 
temptations, 25 
Lawlessness, danger to society, 


213 

Let the minister lead a life of 
faith and hope, 90 

Letter on Catholicism, 90, 10% 

Letter on creeds, 103 

Liberal church, dedication of a, 
I4I 

Liberal church, ends for which 
erected, 140 

The Liberator, xviii 

Liberty, dependent on freedom of 
press and speech, 203 

Life, 10, 23, 34, 39, 46, 50, 55; 
67, 77, 79, 81, 82, 97, 112, 114, 
125, 8135,) 1470057 

Life a divine gift, 26, 146 

Life of love, 55 

Likeness to God, 2, 3, 12, 29 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 
XVill 

Looking on luxury, poor are 
incited to envy and hatred, 164 

Love for Christ, 43 


DES 


Love to Christ, 44, 49 

Lovejoy, xix 

Loyalty to humanity, 156 

Lust of pleasure and greed in- 
satiable, 59 


M 


Magnanimity in misfortune, 63 

Man, kindred nature with God, 
II 

Man, new birth of, 21 

Man of piety, character of, 32 

Man, greatest thing in a city, 
208 

Man who is wanting in force of 


principle and purpose is a 
slave, 122 
Man’s duty to man, growing 


recognition of, 154 

Marcus Aurelius, 67 

Marriage a solemn and _ holy 
relation, 75 

Marshall, Chief Justice, xv 

Martyrs for peace, 227 

Massachusetts Peace Society, or- 
ganised in Channing’s study, 
xvi 

Man, does a country produce 
noble ones, 195 

Mexico, Channing’s attitude to- 
ward war with, 202 

Miller, Samuel, ix 

Milton, John, 64, 136 

Milton, John, review of works 
on, xvi 

Mind open to truth, 123 

Ministry, demands of a progres- 
sive age on, 84, 272, 277 

Ministry to the poor, 72, 74, 162, 
163, 165 

Misfortune, magnanimity in, 63 

Mob-rule, a denial of freedom, 
212 

Monopoly of power, democracy a 
prevention of, 190 


25.4 


Monopoly of thought in religious 
matters belongs to no individ- 
ual or class, 131 

Monroe Doctrine, moral interpre- 
tation of, 201 

Moors, 68 

Moral argument against Calvin- 
ism, 129 

Moral courage and candor must 
mark the effective minister, 85 

Moral courage superior to mili- 
tary courage, 233 

Moral culture, sense of beauty 
an element of, 62 

Moral energy and perseverance, 
60 

Moral energy, statesmen should 
produce this in his people, 187 

Moral equivalence of men, 149 

Moral evil is the worst misfor- 


tune, 30 

Moral independence, 125 

Moral law, its authority over 
state, 179 

Moral perfections of the Deity, 
22 

Moral perfection, religion pro- 


vides a motive for, 27 
Moral revolution, the wonderful, 
wrought by the Gospel, 50 
Moral sentiment of world against 


war, 215 
Moral standards and ideals of 
government, their influence 


upon citizens, 181 

Moral state of city, personal in- 
terest in, 210 

Morality, international, xxiv 

Morse, Jedidiah, ix 

Moses, 3 

Motives, self-interest not highest 
for nations, 185 


N 


Nation, its greatness dependent 
upon intellectual culture, 194 


INDEX 


Nations, subordinate to humanity, 
192 

National happiness bound up with 
national virtue, 193 

National honor, justice first ele- 
ment of, 183 

National honor, true idea of, 230 

National ideals, wealth a danger 
to, 199 

National literature, 125, 195 

National peril, imperialistic ex- 
pansion, 200 

National wealth, a danger to its 
ideals, 199 

National well-being, impartial 
administration of law vital to 
it, 211 

Nations bound by moral law, 179 

Nations, true glory of, benefi- 
cence not conquest, 222 

Need for peace makers in an age 
of strife, 166 

Newport, home in, vii 

Newspapers, value and power of 
when upright, 214 


O 


Ordination sermon for 
John S. Dwight, 87 
Our membership in great human 
family and partnership in its 

fortunes, 147 


Rev. 


[e 


Paine, Thomas, xii 

“Paradise Lost,” 63 

Parents and teachers may deter- 
mine the environment, 91 

Parker, Theodore, ostracizing of, 
xxiii 

Passionate vehemence of the re- 
former is often justified, 135 

Passion, guilty when it seeks 
power over one’s fellows, 188 

Patience, national, 205 


INDEX 


Patriotism, false variety often in- 
cites war, 187 

Paul, 3 

Peace, martyrs for, 227 

Peace of God which passeth un- 
derstanding, 40 

Perfecting power of religion, 28 

Philanthropist, The, 52, 155, 217 

Philanthropy, the mission of 
America to the world, 198 

Piety, Unitarian Christianity fa- 
vorable to, 25, 32, 139, 143 

Political sovereignty should not 
imply the right to make war, 
225 

Poor, looking on luxury incites to 
envy and hatred, 164 


Poor, ministry to, 72, 74, 162, 
163, 165 
Poverty and its wretchedness 


must be eliminated, 160 


Poverty, contempt shown, en- 
genders self-contempt in the 
poor, 162 


Power over fellow-man, guilty 
passion of, 188 

Prayer for brotherhood of man, 
82 

Prayer of adoration and com- 
munion, 79 

Prayer, pure spirit and uses of, 


13 

Preaching religion, present it 
cheerfully but as a challenge 
to heroism, 94 

Precepts for self-discipline in vir- 
Hues 57 

Present age, 4, 167, 171, 174 

Present civilization hostile to 
Christianity, 157 

Progress, faith of, 173 

Pure in heart shall see God, 26 


Q 


Quincy, Josiah, xv 


255 


R 


Rational attitude 
Bible, 136 

Rational nature, never do vio- 
lence to, 129 

Rectitude, the supreme good of 
states, 184 

Reformation, xv, 135 

Reformer, passionate vehemence, 
often justifiable, 135 

Religion alone can offset the 
poisonous by-products of civ- 
ilization, 174 

Religion, essential thing, 34 

Religion provides a motive for 
moral perfection, 27 

Religion reminds human nature 
of its divine parentage and ob- 
ligations, 17 

Religion, true, blends itself with 
human life, 28 

Religious revivals are contrived 
to subvert deliberation and 
self-control, 139 

Remarks on Associations, 140 

Reverence for man must preface 
genuine social reform, 155 

Reward of good in life here- 
after, 112 

Rich, self-indulgence of demoral- 
izes the poor, 163 

Richmond, sojourn in, vii 

Richmond, teaching in, vi 

Right, idea of, God’s gift, 29 

Righteousness the truest ex- 
pediency, 70 

Rights, those of 
America, 197 

Rise of labor master movement 
of our age, 159 

Robertson, Frederick, 1i 


toward the 


individual in 


S 


Sale of ardent spirits must be 
suppressed, 238 


256 


Sanctuary of home, 77 

Saving grace of the loving heart, 
72 

Sectarianism, we should shun, ror 

Seeking and redeeming love of 
God;.23 

Self-culture, 6, 14, 63, 75, 238 

Self-defense a valid but rare oc- 
casion of war, 228 

Self-denial, 57, 60, 62, 130 

Self-denial, great virtues bear the 
impress of, 56 

Self-discipline, 
virtue, 57 

Self-indulgence of the rich de- 
moralizes the poor, 163 

Self-interest, not highest motive 
in nation’s career, 185 

Sense, common and self-reliance, 
xi 

Sense of beauty an element of 
moral culture, 62 

Serious and honest inquiry into 
religion, 126 

Settlement house, visualized fifty 
years in advance, xvi 

Shelley, Percy B., xxiii 

Slavery, 70, 71, 78, 126, 127, 150, 
TOMO SRL OO.2 ES 

Slavery, (book), xix 

Social distinctions, should be 
those based on moral and in- 
tellectual excellence, 6 

Social life involves high estimate 
of human nature, 15 

Social reform, reverence for man 
must preface genuine, 155 

Social revolution must not come 
by violence, 171 

Social storms, 8 

Society, danger from lawlessness, 
213 

Society, great enemies of not in 
its poorer ranks, 169 

Society, how Christianity differs 
from, 146 


precepts for in 


INDEX 


Solemn responsibility of declaring 
War, 224 

Soul, Christianity’s great design, 
infinite perfection of, 18 

Soul, divine powers in the lowli- 
est individual, 12 

Soul, greater than state, 178 

Soul made for God, 14 

Spain, 68 

Spirit, messages from, xxiv 

Spirit of humanity distinguishes 
modern times, 144 

Spirit of materialism, danger of, 
175 

Spiritual conceptions of the idea 
of hell, 114 

Spiritual freedom, 18, 120, 122, 
123, 134, 175, 177, 179, 181, 
183, 187, 194 

Spiritual freedom, Sermon on, 
XXli 

State, less sacred than soul, 178 

State, supreme good of is recti- 
tude, 184 

Statesman, first duty of, 187 

Sumner, Charles, xv 

Sunday School, 95 

Sword, must it devour forever, 
217 

Sympathy, with the suffering, 156 


i 
Teacher, office of, noblest on 
earth, 92 
Temperance, 164, 237, 239, 241, 
242, 243 


Texas, Annexation of, xix, 83 

Thought in religious matters, mo- 
nopoly of, belongs to no indi- 
vidual or class, 131 

Trajan, Emperor, 67 

Treat men as men and they will 
not prove wild beasts, 150 

True idea of national honor, 230 


INDEX 


True praise of God is appropria- 
tion of his goodness, 35 

True religion blends itself with 
human life, 28 

Truth, grandest, within you, 19 

Tuckerman, Joseph, On, 208, 209, 
211 

Tyranny of bigotry, 133 


U 


Ultimate reliance of human be- 
ing on his own mind, 128 

Unitarian, 24 

Unitarian Christianity, 33, 137 

Unitarian Christianity favorable 
to piety, 25, 32, 139, 143 

Unitarianism, 23, 24 

Universal benevolence of Jesus, 


Universal church, covenant of is 
charity and beneficence, 97 

Universal Father, 19 

Universality, of the 
Gospel, 103 

Usefulness of good does not end 
with death, 111 


Christian 


V 
Vicarious atonement, debasement 
of God’s nature implied Ly 


doctrine of, 137 

Victorious love, Christ’s cross a 
symbol of, 47 

Virtue, national, 193 

Virtue, precepts for self-discipline 
In, 57 

Virtue the bond of Universal 
Church, 98 

Vision of Christ’s reign, 49 


257 
Ww 


War, 184, 188, 199, 220, 221, 225, 
227, 228, 233, 235 

War, conscientious objection to 
is justifiable, 221 

War, duty of citizen to question 
it, 220 

War, false patriotism incites it, 
187 

War, moral sentiment of world 
against it, 215 

War, must sword devour for- 
ever, 217 

War, necessity for it, 219 

War, solemn responsibility of de- 
claring, 224 

War, to question the justice of, 
our duty and right, 220 

Washington, George, xiv 

Wealth and rank, worldliness of, 
167 

Wealth, applied to 
beneficence, 73 

Wealth, national, 199 

Webster, Noah, xv 

West Indies, Emancipation of 
slaves in, xix 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, ii 

Within you, is the grandest truth, 


works of 


19 

Wonderful moral revolution 
wrought by the Gospel, 50 

Working man should not emulate 
fashionable and idle rich, 165 

Worldliness of wealth and rank, 
167 

Worship, 37 

Worship, Christian, 38, 39, 141 

Worship of mammon and spirit 
of materialism, 175 

Wrong methods not sanctified by 
holy ends, 69 




























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